links for 2008-01-30

Things you won’t see in Star Tours at Disneyworld

As a Star Wars geek, I love one-offs and mashups of Star Wars-related stuff. Ceth Stifel, aka “Thumper-001” on deviantART, inspired by a recent trip to Disneyland and the Disney/Star Wars figurines one can purchase there, has created a unique set of mashup art combining my favorite movie franchise with the Disney characters millions have come to know and love.


Boba Ducks Trophy by *Thumper-001 on deviantART

Donald Duck as Boba Fett, Goofy as Darth Maul, Mickey as Lando Calrissian, as well as a host of other Star Wars characters, Chip and Dale as Wookies. Great, great stuff.

A timely reminder

“It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.” — Thomas Paine (The American Crisis, No. 1, 19 December 1776)

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings, Foner ed., Library of America (97)
Just seems like something to keep in mind regarding our jihadist enemies…

links for 2008-01-28

links for 2008-01-27

Guess which way we’re going to go

Bruce Henderson:

One of the reasons that house prices got so high here is that people could get crazy financing for huge amounts without adequate resources to pay it back. So “dumb money” bid the price too high, and now no one can buy or sell because they can’t finance their homes.

So there are two ways to fix this – the healthy way would be to let the market forces bring the prices down to what people can reasonably pay. This is the best for everyone long term as it levels out who can live in California.

The second way would be to use the government backed entities, Fannie and Freddie, to prop up these insane prices. This is akin to providing an alcoholic with discount coupons for the corner liquor store.

“Ouch” is right

Tony Woodlief:

I never thought I would have to hold a package of frozen peas on my son’s penis. They don’t tell you this may be a possibility in parenting class. It’s all breathing and learning to count to ten and not freaking out when they get a diaper rash. But penis bruises? Nowhere in the manual.

links for 2008-01-26

links for 2008-01-25

links for 2008-01-24