Here’s Jonathon Pie (Tom Walker) with another good rant.
Mind the volume; Jonathon gets a little salty – as usual.
Archive for the ‘Political humor’ Category
Sharing the Trump humor
February 5, 2017Dan Mitchell posts some amusing videos at International Liberty today. Here’s one from the Netherlands.
OK… Since Be Social Education (whatever that is) got the Netherlands video taken down, here’s the clip from Switzerland. Later… The Netherlands clip is back. Did ‘Be Social’ decide to be sociable?
The idea seems to have gone viral. There are similar videos from Denmark, Germany, and many others.
See also #everysecondcounts.
Condescending attitudes
November 7, 2016
How many actions do you take that require an ID to complete? It’s a long list, right? Flying on a commercial carrier, cashing a check (even at your own bank), buying tobacco or alcohol, making practically any credit agreement (renting a car, a hotel room, or a house), entering an adult-only nightclub, picking up a prescription, and so on and so forth. I’m sure there are many others.
I’ve never understood the argument that requiring an ID for voting imposes a hardship on people. Voting is one of the few events when I think the state has a valid interest in verifying your identity.
I mean, I get that most people arguing against IDs for voting are making a partisan argument. But, seriously, who doesn’t have an ID already?
And if you do know someone without an ID, why not help them get one? Yes, I mean you – as in you, personally. Enough people being neighborly about this would solve the problem (to the extent there is one) pretty darned quickly.
Vote Yes on Missouri Amendment 6.
Update: (11/9/16): Amendment 6 was passed, 63% to 37%.
Seems like a pretty safe bet
November 7, 2016
And speaking of entertainment…
November 4, 2016This is about a month old now but it is the best political ad I’ve seen this year (and maybe the best I’ve ever seen).
Sigh…
October 1, 2016This cartoon comes via "A (Sadly Short) List of Admirable Foreign Leaders" at Dan Mitchell’s International Liberty blog. There are some good choices on Dan’s list.
Now I like Gary Johnson’s and Bill Weld’s positions for the most part; certainly I like them more than I like their competitors’ positions.
But there are days when I wish Johnson would kick his game up a notch or two. Maybe he could take some advice from Matt Welch? (My emphasis.)
Gary Johnson Has an ‘Aleppo Moment’ (His Unfortunate Words) on MSNBC
Right before I interviewed him at the Libertarian National Convention in May and again before his CNN townhall in June, Gary Johnson made the same odd comment to me (this is a paraphrase): “Matt, I’m so sorry that it’s me up there defending libertarian ideas instead of you people who have been speaking about it so eloquently for so long!” He made a similar comment to longtime Libertarian activists just after accepting their nomination in Orlando. Aside from being an expression of his endearing-for-a-politician humility, the pre-apologies pointed to a central paradox of the Johnson campaign: His strategy has been laser-focused on getting into the presidential debates, and yet as a communicator, he is uneven, goofy around the edges, and prone to the occasional WTF moment.
Oh sure, you can come up with some caveats and whataboutisms here. I don’t know who my favorite foreign leader is either! NPR and Salon and all the rest are unfairly mischaracterizing this as Johnson being “unable to name a foreign leader”! There’s scant evidence that the voting public cares about foreign-policy gotcha moments, particularly in this of all campaign seasons! Also, what about Hillary Clinton’s warmongering and Donald Trump’s incoherent Mideast bluster!
All of that may be interesting, but it doesn’t change the fact that Gary Johnson screwed up bigly here, because this is who Gary Johnson is. A partial list of self-inflicted errors in this exchange: […]
Promises, promises
September 30, 2016I like this guy’s clever signs. If only we could find someone to deliver on his campaign promises.
H.T. Paul B
I wish it was going to be painless
August 1, 2016
She who laughs last
May 18, 2016This obituary notice appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
NOLAND, MARY ANNE
posted Yesterday May 17th, 2016NOLAND, Mary Anne Alfriend. Faced with the prospect of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Mary Anne Noland of Richmond chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God on Sunday, May 15, 2016, at the age of 68. […]
Well played, Ms. Nolan. Rest in peace.
Via Instapundit
And I’m dreading the hangover
May 13, 2016
As Tim Carney asks, "Which untrustworthy cronyist liberal New York millionaire do you prefer?"
More humor from Britain:
What he said (8)
January 13, 2016"There are 1011 stars in the galaxy," [Richard] Feynman once said. "That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers."
What she said
January 5, 2016Mollie Hemingway vents about the Trump phenomenon. She makes some good points and is fairly amusing, so RTWT.
When It Comes To Donald Trump, I Hate Everyone
I hate Donald Trump, people who love Donald Trump, people who hate Donald Trump, and media who cover Donald Trump.We’re now in month eight or so of Trumpmania. He has a core of support, and the media can’t get enough of him. The effect he has on people is fascinating. But it’s also remarkably annoying. Every casual utterance by Trump leads the news cycle until the subsequent outrage. And everyone flips out. Trump flips out. His fans flip out. His enemies flip out. The media flip out.
It’s enough to make you hate everyone. In fact, it does make me hate everyone. That probably includes you. Here’s a list of everyone in the Trump saga who is awful. […]
More unnecessary spending
February 21, 2015I spotted this Jeep in west St. Louis county recently and found the sign pretty funny. After the obvious “Jeeps are awesome” angle, I took it as a joke about libertarians. But I thought it was amusing nonetheless.
At the very least, it might make people think about government spending. And maybe some thoughtful ones will think about who builds roads and how they’re financed.
Mark Major at The Outlaw Urbanist used the sticker as a starting for point for an editorial. (I haven’t read the whole piece so have no opinion about it.)
I love the smell of the Streisand Effect in the morning
March 8, 2014And this could be a very amusing instance of it. This article appeared at TechDirt.
We’ve covered for a while now how Uber — the mobile phone-enabled car/taxi ordering service — has run up against a bunch of obsolete laws in various cities, often leading to bizarre rebuttals from municipal officials. Uber quickly realized that each ridiculous response from a city government was something of a marketing opportunity to introduce itself to new cities. You would think, by now, city officials would learn that the proper thing to do is figure out how to work with Uber to provide better transportation for their citizenry, rather than immediately bowing to demands from taxi/limo companies who fear potential competition.
However, the response from Houston may be the most bizarre of all. Uber had set up a petition for Houston residents, emailing city officials of their support for allowing Uber in that city. In response to this, the city of Houston issued a cease-and-desist, effectively telling Uber to stop asking Houston residents to contact their own elected government about this issues any more.
[Letter from Houston’s City Attorney, David Feldman, omitted.]
It’s ridiculous for Feldman to argue that citizens contacting their own elected officials is a form of harassment and somehow illegal. And, of course, the end result of this is that it just drives that much more attention to the issue (and probably even more emails).
And here’s the response Uber itself has posted.
HOUSTON GOV’T TO VOTERS: STOP TELLING US WHAT YOU THINK
Over the past three days, nearly 10,000 Houston residents and visitors have signed a petition demanding that Mayor Parker and the City Council make way for modern transportation options like Uber.
And how has the city responded? The City Attorney has issued a cease and desist order against its own constituents. That’s right, the City of Houston has demanded that Houstonians stop emailing the Mayor and the City Council.
WE WON’T CEASE OR DESIST #HOUSTONNEEDSUBER
Your emails of support for legislative efforts to modernize the city’s transportation system – and the city’s reaction – call a very important question: Are Houston’s elected leaders beholden to their constituents, or to incumbent industry?
Pegging the irony meter
March 7, 2014Sometimes it seems there’s a little black humor in every situation, doesn’t it? (My emphasis below.) Here’s another revelation from the Snowden documents at The Intercept.
The NSA Has An Advice Columnist. Seriously.
What if the National Security Agency had its own advice columnist? What would the eavesdroppers ask about?
You don’t need to guess. An NSA official, writing under the pen name “Zelda,” has actually served at the agency as a Dear Abby for spies. Her “Ask Zelda!” columns, distributed on the agency’s intranet and accessible only to those with the proper security clearance, are among the documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The columns are often amusing – topics include co-workers falling asleep on the job, sodas being stolen from shared fridges, supervisors not responding to emails, and office-mates who smell bad. But one of the most intriguing involves a letter from an NSA staffer who complains that his (or her) boss is spying on employees.
A little Bitcoin humor
March 7, 2014Here’s a pair of funny videos about the things Bitcoin fanatics say.
The Health Care Special (4)
February 22, 2014The reason I title these posts about Obamacare as I do is because when it kicked in I wanted to do a parody of Midnight Special about it. But that didn’t pan out.
Luckily, we have this parody of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 to fill the gap (from Reason.tv).
No Truce With Kings 