Virginia is For Lovers, Texas Ain't for Whiners?

In answer to a reader's query at Instapundit:

A READER TAKES ME TO TASK for not paying enough attention to the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in Texas, and she's right. The Houston Chronicle has been doing a good job of covering that, and there's a lot of coverage from John Little. And here's the latest update from Dr. Melissa Clouthier. If you've got more stuff, please send it.

Why do hurricanes that hit Texas get so much less attention than hurricanes that hit New Orleans?

UPDATE: Another reader emails: 'If you want to discuss lack of coverage, wasn't the hurricane that hit New Orleans the same hurricane that nearly wiped the Mississippi gulf coast off the map?" Yes. Why did New Orleans get so much more attention? Is it because the media wanted to paint the Bush Administration as racially insensitive, or is New Orleans just the only place they could find on a map?

Or perhaps it's just because most of the people who live in Texas realize that the price they pay for living in an almost tropical climate is that occasionally they have to deal with some of the perils of the tropics, ie, storms. Apparently many of the residents of the Gulf region were unaware that living in an area frequented by hurricanes and brutal tropical storms means that odds are, you're gonna get your house wrecked at some point by one of these storms, and that whining about it after the fact isn't a great way to deal with it. Sure, you'll get billions in taxpayer aid from the rest of us who didn't decide to live in such an area, free housing, big-screen TV's, etc, but I guess maybe Texans are more interested in actually rebuilding their communities themselves instead of complaining to the media that everyone else around the country hasn't given them enough cash.

Obama's Running More Negative Ads Than McCain

20% more, according to a report from the TNS Media Intelligence Campaign Media Analysis Group (TNSMI/CMAG) and the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project.
via Marc Ambinder at TheAtlantic.com

The campaigns are spending about $15m in ads per week; each is spending about $7.8 million. most of McCain's ads are paid for with both McCain campaign money and money from the RNC; 97% of Obama's ads are paid for by the candidate. 77% of the Obama campaigns' ads were deemed "negative," compared to 56% for McCain.

And in a related bit of news, linked to by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, from a column by Karl Rove in the WSJ, he points out a very revealing slip from the Messiah that I've yet to see reported in the MSM:

...in an interview with ABC recently, Mr. Obama said, "If we're going to ask questions about who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily." That he is in fact winning the contest for the most negative campaign could well spell his defeat.

For Foodies

A friend/co-worker of mine (she actually sits right behind me, and therefore literally oversees everything I put up here) has launched her own blog, devoted to her cooking. She's very talented, and makes a lot of Korean dishes. Give it a look, if you're into that kinda thing. I like the name.

Ambitious Delicious(ness)

Food News Round-Up

Food News to Go
Via Instapundit

AP Protecting its Sources in Palin E-Mail Hackery

An addendum to the non-story about idiots breaking into and stealing Sarah Palin's emails and some photos, which were then displayed by moronic enablers at Gawker and the AP, among others. Now, after the Secret Service "asked" the AP for copies of the leaked emails, the AP refused to comply.

I don't really care about people breaking in Sarah Palin's Yahoo account and swiping some emails and whatnot. Yeah, it sucks for her, that's unfortunate, hopefully there was nothing compromising, but it's going to happen, particularly to someone as hated as she has rapidly become. If nothing else, it's a good thing, it shows the depths to which the left is willing to sink in order to dig up anything at all that they can try to use to bring down our Golden Girl.

What I have a major problem with is the asshats at Gawker and the AP and anyone else that willfully splashed the private emails of the Governor of Alaska and candidate for Vice President all over the Internet, and then tries to act like it's no big deal, they're just doing their job as members of the media. It's no wonder that people are quickly becoming fed up with the MSM, the AP in particular, and that Palin/McCain are maintaining at least a tie in the polls. Is there any chance at all in the world, that if this had happened to Obama, or Hillary Clinton, or even a RINO like Arlen Specter that these idiots would be enabling the felons who did this by plastering the stolen emails everywhere? Not a chance.

Disgusting.

VDH Tells It Like It Is

As usual, Victor Davis Hanson injects a much-needed dose of reality and sanity into your day...

I think almost everyone knew that should McCain surge a point or two hysteria would ensue, and the hope and change idealism would morph into the wounded fawn cries out against the "lying" and "lost his bearings" and "can't remember" enfeebled, aged McCain — while in the mind of his galvanized self-righteous and more extreme supporters everything else becomes fair game for the higher cause of defeating McCain.

Read it all here

Democratic-led Congress Responds to the Worst Economic Crisis in Years By...Going Home

Democratic Congress May Adjourn, Leave Crisis to Fed, Treasury from Bloomberg, via The Corner

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Democratic-controlled Congress, acknowledging that it isn't equipped to lead the way to a solution for the financial crisis and can't agree on a path to follow, is likely to just get out of the way.

Not that I mind at all, in fact, this seems like something that Congress should do a lot more often when it comes to the economy (and most other things), but the headline and the implied negligence and lack of any sort of viable solution seems very very emblematic.

Rangel on His Way Out?

PELOSI PUSHES RANGEL TO STEP DOWN FROM COMMITTEE CHAIR from the NYPost, via JammieWearingFool

It can't happen soon enough. Although having said that, the longer this fool hangs around as a symbol of his party, the better for the Republicans. I worked for several months as a Congressional intern in the House back when I was in college, and the office I was in was directly across from Rangel's. Whatever I thought of his politics, the guy was one of the friendliest, most gregarious people I've ever met. It's easy to see how he's stuck around so long, despite his numerous gaffes and scandals and his ridiculously liberal policies. But Charlie Rangel is the best argument for Congressional term limits that I could ever think of, and the sooner he's gone, the better, for everyone involved.

Computer Trouble

Sorry, to all my faithful readers (all one of you), my computer went on the fritz yesterday, and there were some awfully tense moments around my apartment as I tried desperately to resurrect her.

She seems to be working ok now, but if there's anyone out there who knows anything about such things, who also happens to be reading this blog, I'd appreciate any input you can offer. And yes, I realize the odds of that being the case are slim to none, with slim hanging on for dear life to the last train out of town.

Basically I started getting pop-up messages saying that something connected to a USB port was malfunctioning (the options are my wireless router and remote control receiver for my cable box, which I watch on my PC via Windows Media Center), and then the computer began to lock up, eventually necessitating a shutdown via the power button. Trying to restart, the same thing happened. And again. Finally, I figured I was in big trouble, me without a backup external hard drive and therefore about to lose most of my music and all of my pictures, not to mention a PC that had originally cost me about $1300, so I resorted to opening up the tower to see if I could see anything obvious. And I did.

To make a long story even longer, when I first purchased the computer from Dell about four years ago, it died after six months, blue screen of death, everything. Apparently it had been put together with shoddy hardware, something that seems to be no uncommon with Dells. Not having purchased the warranty, I was pretty pissed to have a $1300 paperweight after six months of use, but I was able to get send an email to a higher-up at Dell, and he apparently finagled it so that I could get in touch with a Dell repairman, who (at least partially) fixed it for me at no charge. A bad motherboard, he told me. Not a bad deal, considering, but it shouldn't have ever come to that point to begin with, at least not after just six months. And to top it off, yes, he did get the computer running again, and (up until yesterday) it hasn't given me any trouble since, but when it was returned, the outer casing was slightly cracked, so that it didn't fit snugly and has had to be held in place with tape ever since.

The end result of all of this was that when I opened up the casing yesterday, I discovered that over the course of four years, with a slightly cracked casing, the interior of the computer had accumulated quite a bit of dust. In particular, the grating on the rear of the fan unit was basically covered. I cleaned everything, primarily by blowing really hard, but using a paper towel to clean off the fan housing, and when I had put everything back together, and hooked it all up again, it seems to be working fine.

So I suppose the end result of all this is A) If something you buy without a warranty malfunctions way too early, don't give up until you speak to someone at the top; and B) Periodically dust the interior of your computer, paying special attention to the fan. What a boring, boring post. I really hope no one actually reads this through to the end...

Whoopi Embarrasses Herself; McCain Wimps Out

Dirty Harry has a video clip up of John McCain on The View, apparently trying to answer a serious question in a serious manner, you know, like adults do. Whoopi Goldberg jumps in out of left field with an utterly idiotic comment about being "returned" to slavery, apparently thinking that McCain's stated support of judges who will interpret the Constitution as the founders intended was his way of saying that we would revert to the original Constitution, you know, before Republicans ended slavery against the objections of the Democrats.

What a jackass. Either Goldberg is actually a complete and utter moron, and actually believes what she's spouting, that John McCain would like to return her to slavery, whatever the hell that means (I fail to see how being a millionaire entertainer many times over is at all similar to slavery...), or else she is saying stupid things purely to garner applause from the equally juvenile sheep in the studio audience, who do their part and whistle and cheer as the childishly self-satisfied Goldberg soaks it up.

However, as much of an asshat as Goldberg makes of herself, it's expected of her at this point. The Dems have no serious arguments to offer against any of McCain's policies, so they're reduced to "playground insults" and nonsensical rantings in partisan settings. What's almost more frustrating is McCain's complete and utter failure to take her to school.

Granted, he has the whole "temper" reputation to watch out for, the last thing he needs is to have a clip on YouTube of him lashing out at a host on The View, but his response to this idiocy is pathetic. He stutters out a sad little, "That's an excellent point," and smiles, apparently amused by this simple fool. There's a large, large middle ground between lashing out and accepting this lunacy with a smile, and John McCain needs to find it, but quick. It's been working for Sarah Palin, fighting back against the lunatic, infantile attacks of the left, maybe John McCain should give it a try. The American people seem to like it, and it's definitely not politics as usual.

If you can bear to watch the clip through to the end, however, you'll witness the most embarrassing part, as once legitimate journalist Barbara Walters, in an apparent effort to comfort the schvitzing Goldberg, throws out a casual, "Us white folk will take care of you." Oh my.