MatthewMaynard.net

Skip the punctuation? New poet laureate does:

A writer who stopped using punctuation in the 1960s and spent much of the last 30 years secluded in Hawaii will become the nation’s next chief poet.

…

The one-year appointment as poet laureate is meant to raise national appreciation of poetry. It comes with a $35,000 stipend and a $5,000 travel allowance.

He gets $40k for not using apostrophes, quotes, periods, or exclamation marks. I wonder if he thinks there should be a law limiting the sales of books to ten thousand copies.

[Balph Eubank] was described as the literary leader of the age, but had never written a book that sold more than three thousand copies. – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

You might say that a guy who has published or edited more than 60 works and secludes himself from society might count himself in the company of Galt’s strikers. I say anyone who is recognized as a leader of today’s poets, takes $40k from the government, and does not hold to an objective standard of communication would be horrified to be identified with anything from Ayn Rand’s mind.

Last Thursday, during the stock market “glitch”, I tweeted the following.

* Stock market is crashing, -700 or more. I’m in gold & silver. This is entertaining, just not for others. 2:47 PM May 6th via web
* Scratch that, down 900. Where’s that golden parachute? 2:48 PM May 6th via web
* Cramer says a glitch dropped the Dow ‘only’ an extra 400 points – still down 463. If that ‘glitch’ was engineered, someone cleaned up. 3:02 PM May 6th via web
* Dow is down now about 500 – no one is seeing the trend over the day, only the spike – I predict a close between 10400 and 10350. 3:31 PM May 6th via web

It did not close in that range. At the end of the day I tweeted this:

Dow closes -348, @ 10520. What was wrong with my analysis? I didn’t anticipate the trend would break. Hey, I’m still green for the day. 4:09 PM May 6th via web

What trend was I referring to? The one in this graph:

Shown is the Dow for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 1-minute intervals, from Scottrade. Thursday is between the two vertical lines, with the afternoon spike clearly visible. A red line has been added that refers to the trend I saw if the spike was disregarded as “bad data”. Note the trend, projected forward, ends at around 10,200 – my estimate was off as to where it would end, but that would have been a 600 point drop for the day, as opposed to a 400-450 point drop I predicted. As it was, the market ended down “only” 348 points – nothing to ignore, but certainly nothing to get excited about.

Unless you were in gold.

Now, notice what happens around 3:30 PM. The trend is broken, and a recovery begins. That reversal adds approximately 160 points to make the close at 10,520. Such reversals at the last half hour have been observed before by others, in both directions – up when the market was sinking, down when it was climbing. As to the cause of such reversals I can only speculate blindly, since I have no data. Some have suggested it is evidence that someone is placing massive bets on the market moving in the other direction, while others suggest it is the opposite. Not being fluent in the ways of the markets and their machines, I have no idea if they are right or not. All I know is that hard assets, by which I mean tangible precious metals you hold in your hand, are not subject to such manipulations, if they exist. Even paper assets that serve as replacements for the tangibles, such as the GLD and SLV exchange traded funds, are not immune to possible manipulation.

Some data points from the graph, also from Scottrade.
Open: 10869
1427: 10623
1445: 10040
1447: 9981
1459: 10437
1502: 10419
1526: 10365
1600: 10520

The new Arizona Immigration Law is stirring up a hornet’s nest; if the Facebook groups are reliable indicators, opposition to the bill is outnumbered 19 to 1. The bill is obviously very popular, yet vehemently opposed. But don’t decide your support or opposition based on popularity; democracy lies down that road, which is just the destruction of an individual’s natural rights when the majority gets upset. Decide based on the text of the law and the Senate’s summary, and evaluate its agreement or opposition to natural law and the State and Federal Constitutions. There’s no other way to do things in these united States.
Read more…

Umm … wow. I thought this was nuts when I first saw it. But as Col. Hannibal Smith would say, “It gets better.”

Carly Fiorina “Demon Sheep” Ad Inspires Opponents

Meanwhile, a commercial producer tells Fishbowl LA that Fiorina’s spot – the point of which is to suggest that another candidate in the Republican primary race, Tom Campbell, isn’t a real fiscal conservative – probably cost around $15,000 to produce.

Fifteen big ones down the tube on cheap graphics and you claim to be the fiscal conservative??? I’m sorry, the irony is too thick there, I need a chainsaw to get through it.

But it gets better: Demonsheep.org, where Chuck DeVore, a third candidate in the CA senate race, takes the adage to heart to never let an opponent’s mistake go to waste: “your email will be kept strictly private and never shared with demon sheep.”

ALL YOUR SHEEP ARE BELONG TO US

Hitler is even getting in on the ad:

Never insult the target audience.

When you remember your American History class that dealt with the Civil War (you were taught that subject, right?) any memory of what you were taught about Gettysburg day three probably centers around Pickett and his charge up the middle of the Union line, under fire and failing in a bloody mess the whole way. What you are not taught is how that analysis does not match with Lee’s battle plans up to that point. That is, you are not taught how the standard evaluation of day three, a lone frontal charge against a fortified position, differs from Lee’s assaults at Chancellorsville, or the Seven Days campaign, or historical battles such as Gaugamela that Lee had access to as a student at West Point. What you are left with is a perception that Lee was bested by superior Union generalship, or that he had a bad day. Tom Carhart argues convincingly that Lee’s plan not only was more complex than that, but came within a hair’s breadth of succeeding, and was stopped by none other than George Armstrong Custer.
Read more…

On Tuesday, I received an email from the Gun Owners of America, detailing House Bill 69, titled the Firearms Freedom Act. Similar to measures passed last year in Montana and Tennessee, the email summarizes it like this:

The Firearms Freedom Act has a simple concept. It states that if a gun was made in Virginia, and then stays in Virginia, then the federal government may not regulate it under the Interstate Commerce Cause. (Because, you see, the gun was never part of any interstate commerce.)

By gun they mean not only a firearm receiver but also the all-useful suppressor, a safety device the feds have deemed too dangerous for the average person to have, as it apparently protects hearing too well for us to use it. The bill is important because it is an assertion of Tenth Amendment rights against the National Firearms Act of 1934, which unconstitutionally requires a tax on and registration of certain firearms and accessories the government wants to make prohibitively expensive.

Anyway, back to the inbox. The GOA was in favor of the bill and encouraged the reader to be as well, listing how they can contact their delegate and do the involved thing of taking part in their own government. Later that day, I received two emails from the National Rifle Association, commonly perceived to be the “extreme” gun rights organization. The two emails also covered bills introduced in the VA House of Delegates, including House Bills 8, 26, 49, 52, 72, 79, 106, 108, 109, 152, 171, 236, 251, 475, 489, 505, 637, 870, 885, and Senate Bill 79, all removing various restrictions on the rights to keep and bear. Likewise, the NRA was against House Bills 520 and 879 and Senate Bill 268.

Notice anything missing?

The NRA doesn’t want to touch the separation of powers issue for some reason. I would guess that they feel it either detracts from their goal of being “on target” on the guns issue (sorry) or they feel it is a non-starter, that they can’t win when it comes to selling machine guns to the general public. Viewing it like this detracts from the main issue facing the nation, the one that touches not only the Second Amendment but all the other amendments and articles – will or will not the Federal Government be restrained by its originating covenant? If it will be restrained, then we must support HB 69, and any bill like it in other states. If the federal government will not be restrained, then why are we playing tiddlywinks with the details of what arms are protected by the Second Amendment and what aren’t?

Not backing HB 69 makes me wonder if I should keep sending them my membership fee. If they won’t put the money to good use, perhaps someone else would put it to better use.

(This year Someone to Remember Today will focus on Civil War Medal of Honor recipients)

ANDERSON, EVERETT W.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company M, 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Place and date: At Crosbys Creek, Tenn., 14 January 1864. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: Louisiana. Date of issue: 3 December 1894. Citation: Captured, single-handed, Confederate Brig. Gen. Robert B. Vance during a charge upon the enemy.

‘They Have Been Cursed’: Pat Robertson Says Haiti ‘Swore a Pact to the Devil’

Let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that Pat Robertson (a) is correct in his history of the people of Haiti, and (b) he has some evidence that it happened. Even if those are both true, this is not the time to say something that people will view as laying blame on the innocent. Despite his statement at the end that he hopes and prays that the people of that island would turn to God and that he prays for their immediate relief, people don’t see it as a statement for mercy. They see it as a statement of blame, which it is.

So let’s speculate for a bit. The better time to say that would have been six months ago. The same thing would have happened, everyone would have called him a kook and dismissed him, but when the earthquake struck, somebody might have remembered what he had said and perhaps then it would have been received with a soft heart.

This is the same type of thing he said after 9-11, which he blamed on America’s sinfulness. It may have been true, but it was not received because of the events at the time.

Compare and contrast with Billy Graham’s outfit, which is just soliciting donations and speeding relief. They will likely see many many more donations than CBN, and will be more effective in their ministry.

When spreading the gospel, one must always be sensitive to the weaknesses and tendernesses of others, lest you unwittingly harden the ground you are trying to sow.

Okay, okay, I can’t contain myself.

LIAM NEESON?!?!?!? SERIOUSLY, AN IRISHMAN? FOR PERHAPS THE QUINTESSENTIALLY AMERICAN ROLE?

I was hoping for Alan Tudyk as Murdock, but it seems like they got the characters right. That one is definitely one for the theater.