Clipping blog

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• Tighten Up Your Cumberbatch; Here Comes Sherlock!
• The Delivery Presents – How Green is My Podcast?
• Your Fiscal Fright of the Month
• In Praise of Police Restraint and Pepper Spray

Tighten Up Your Cumberbatch; Here Comes Sherlock! Posted: 22 Nov 2011 09:12 AM PST Rejoice, ye fans of Sherlock, for the show is returning! PBS finally announced when American viewers can get their next fix of the superlative British series that teased us to distraction over a year ago. From MASTERPIECE MYSTERY!, premiering at 9:00 p.m. May 6 and continuing through May 20, Sherlock Holmes stalks again in the three-part "Sherlock, Series 2." This modern version, set in 21st-century London, stars Benedict Cumberbatch (War Horse) as the go-to consulting detective and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) as his loyal friend, Dr. John Watson. Yep, folks, it’s back. Finally. When last we saw the remixed detective and his faithful assistant/doctor/soldier/romantic basket case, they were by a swimming pool with an exploding vest. Wait, should I have thrown up a spoiler alert there? Probably not. At some point, you figure there’ll be a swimming pool and an exploding vest. Anyhow, that was in early November of 2010, which means that they’ve been held in a superposition of television character states for over a year now, like Schrödinger’s Detectives . To be fair, the folks behind the series – Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss — have been just a teensy bit busy turning British television into a juggernaut of quality entertainment which mere presence should shame Hollywood into an embarrassed silence. If you haven’t seen Sherlock, you should, even if you’re not a fan of the original (or the incredibly good version that starred Jeremy Brett as the finest Holmes I’ve ever seen). You can nab the DVD set for very little on Amazon. If you do, I’ll get a little bit of the sale price, so do check it out or buy it for a friend who will shower you with gratitude afterwards.

The Delivery Presents – How Green is My Podcast? Posted: 22 Nov 2011 06:10 AM PST I’ve said it before, but the real perk to having my own podcast is that I can bring on guests I like, for as long as I like. Episode 121 is a fine example of that truism, as I brought Stephen Green to the show for a whole hour and let our conversation wander wherever it willed. Steve was a bit under the weather with some post-Blog Con crud, but he came through spectacularly. We did quite a bit of topical wandering in this show — from Occupy Whatever, TARP, and big government in the first half to zombies, the greatness of John Carpenter, and a frenzied summation of the link between Buckaroo Banzai and Jack Burton in the second. I’ll have Steve back very soon to continue what we couldn’t quite finish in the second half of the show. If you’re a movie lover, you’ll want to watch out for that show! So that’s the show. Pick a half, jump in, and be sure to listen to the whole thing. Oh, and tell all your friends, because I’m pushing hard for some amazing end of the year listener numbers! The Delivery - Episode 121 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Your Fiscal Fright of the Month Posted: 21 Nov 2011 09:41 PM PST Now that the Super Committee has done its little song and dance, it’s time for the grown-ups to get a nice, clear view of our problems. One of those problems is our entitlement system, especially Medicare and Social Security. The Democrats steadfastly refuse to admit either of them are any cause for concern but, as Jim Pethokoukis found, they’re full of hooey. Here is the conclusion of a Citigroup analysis of the situation. Quite simply, if Medicare as we know it and social security are to remain, the taxes collected to finance these programs are woefully short. Social Security already runs an operating deficit. Its assets are U.S. Treasury securities that have not been issued to the public, but will be matched with marketed securities when payments come due, as the public was subtly reminded as the debt ceiling was hit in August. As figures 1 illustrates, the 6.2% payroll tax, prior to its "one year" cut in 2011, covers roughly one fourth of the present value of total future Medicare and Social Security obligations as extrapolated by Federal actuaries. The unfunded portion of these programs is now valued at $78 trillion through the future. Fully funding these entitlements will require huge program reforms or sharply higher taxes. Would you like that in a frightening graphic? Here you go. That graphic doesn’t include the parts of Medicare and Social Security that we do have funded right now. Toss those in, and the big orange circles get even bigger, by quite a lot. So, can we get serious about our country’s financial problems now, or shall we wait until those big orange circles consume every dime we produce?

In Praise of Police Restraint and Pepper Spray Posted: 21 Nov 2011 04:51 PM PST Credit: Randy L. Rasmussen, The Oregonian By now, you’ve probably seen what the MSM will ensure becomes an iconic photograph from an Occupy Whatever protest in Portland, OR this weekend. A young woman, screaming defiance at the “banksters” and their greedy overlords, gets a full blast of pepper spray from a fascist police officer who overreacted to the “mostly peaceful” protest. In fact, the notion that the Occupy Whatever protests have been “mostly peaceful” (see reports on Occupy Oakland, Occupy Columbia, Occupy St. Louis, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Portland (Maine), Occupy Denver, and Occupy Berkeley), has been reported in so many media reports that it is now accepted as fact, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. Take a look at this rap sheet compilation by John at Verum Serum, grouped by type of crime committed, Big Journalism’s more complete list of crimes committed by Occupiers, or reports of assaults (sexual and otherwise, including assaults on police officers) from some of those same Occupies locations and you’ll see the same thing that most of America has seen over the past month: the Occupy Whatever movement does not represent the American people and it never has. With the “mostly peaceful” lie in mind, let’s take another look at that picture but this time, let’s take a few steps back. Thanks to a couple of hard-working Portland bloggers, Oregon Media Watch and Victoria Taft, we can. Let’s look at a screenshot taken from local news coverage of the crowd not long before the police pulled out the pepper spray (thank you, Victoria!). I know it’s hard to make out details, but the police are in the lower right half of the screen and the protesters are pushing hard against them from the top and left. Behind the police is the Chase Bank the officers had been trying to clear of protesters who were there illegally. Now, here’s the question I want you to ponder: where are the police supposed to go from here? They are pinned between a hostile crowd and a wall. Their ground is shrinking rapidly and if they don’t hold what they have, they’re going to be overrun. Remember, these protesters have been pushing them all day long. They’ve given ground for hours and, at this point in the day, they have no more to give. What, exactly, are they supposed to do? Really, they only have two choices: break out the pepper-spray or use the batons of, God forbid, their guns. The options are lethal and non-lethal. They can not retreat any farther. They can not let the protesters in among them because that’s when officers get hurt, as they’ve been hurt in several other cities. Yet the MSM and their progressive buddies would rather the police…. …well, what would they rather the police do? Seriously, folks, what were the police supposed to do? Leave entirely and let the protesters trash the private property of the people they are paid to protect? Break out the batons and break some arms, legs, and heads? Get hurt themselves? I’m at a loss here. The truth is that when the police officers hit that girl flush in the face with pepper spray, they were using the lightest of all the tools at their disposal that would let them do their jobs and get home safely to their own families. I am absolutely sure none of those officers wanted to be in a situation where they had to pepper spray a young woman to do their job. Stereotypes aside, no police officer suits up for the day and bounces out the door, eager to beat down a few hippies. Instead, they’re focused on catching a couple real criminals — rapists, robbers, killers — and going home safely to their families when their shift is over. They sure as heck don’t relish spending the day babysitting a bunch of spoiled brats whose idea of political protest is to goad the police or to pile up 200 pounds of human feces near a city building that memorializes military veterans (via Instapundit). Yet, there they were, pinned between a crowd of unruly and dangerous people and a wall. Given the choices, the police did exactly what they should have done. The woman in that picture could have taken a few baton blows in the ribs, knees, or head. She could have been trampled by panicked friends as the police dropped a couple protesters to protect themselves. Instead, she got swollen eyes and an extremely runny nose, and no lasting effects (see her mug shot here). Of course, the MSM won’t ever tell the story of what could have happened, but they should. Because it’s the truth.

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