Carpundit

Boston Bomb Scare Is Marketing Ploy

I'm speechless.  Flabbergasted.  I know many of the law enforcement types who were running around the city Wednesday, putting their lives on the line (so they thought) to locate and deactive these devices.  The person behind this is a fool, and should be made to pay.

UPDATE: A commenter raised the issue of the bombs not looking much like bombs.  I've responded there, but I want to add this article to the discussion.  There were realistic-looking fake bombs found at the same time.  It seems the police really didn't know what they were up against.  Call me crazy, but if I were on the bomb squad, I'd treat every device as an explosive until I knew it wasn't.

Maria Bartiromo - If I Had A Jet, I'd Fly Her On It Too.

Since first watching her on CNBC ten years ago, I have always thought of the sublime Maria Bartiromo as a woman you would leave your wife for.  There may or may not be a former Citigroup executive who felt the same way.  The difference is that he had a fancy jet and a corporate expense account at his disposal.  The WSJ and NYT stories on his firing certainly left room for the inference that Bartiromo's contacts with Todd Thomson were more than journalistic, though they didn't say it.  I wondered why the elephant in the room was unmentioned.  Jack Shafer at Slate has some thoughts.

A Self-Defense Shooting and Another Victim Charged

When I saw the headline, "Cabdriver charged with shooting alleged robber," I thought it must be Cambridge, but I was wrong.  It's Lawrence, in Essex County, where they've just charged the victim of a violent crime with a felony.

Reliving the 80's at SCM

It was a poor decade for cars, compared to the 90's, but a great one compared to the 70's: the cheapest 1980's era cars sold at auction in 2006, courtesy of Sports Car Market.

That Porsche was only 4400 bucks in Branson, Missouri.  I'm glad I wasn't there, because I'm a sucker for phone dial wheels.  (SCM photo)

People Who Should Not Drive

Cathy Seipp's blog is the ultimate inside baseball; if you don't get it, you don't get it.  Me?  I don't get it.  There's this Luke Ford fellow, who's her friend and a fellow California media critic of some sort.  What the hell am I talking about?  For some reason, I decided to read a Luke Ford blog post after a Cathy Seipp link.

When you get to the last two lines, you'll see what I mean.  Someone should take the f***ing keys away.

France Is Probably A Good Place to Sell Hitler's Car

That Nazi-era Audi I mentioned last month is on display at an Audi showroom in Manhattan, on its way to Paris for the auction in which it is expected to fetch a record price.  A Carpundit correspondent captured some images from the crowd.  He had to snap them in between the 30" necks of the security personnel, who were doing their best to keep people away.

Moving the Pig Trough Around

Governor Patrick, says the Boston Globe, may be offering to raise legislators' pay in order to get their backing on some proposals about state governance.  I'm not sure who's to blame in this proposed quid pro quo "reform" on Beacon Hill, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.  It looks like extortion to me -or bribery, depending on your point of view.  I go with the former.

Yes, we desperately need to curtail or abolish many of the quasi-public agencies that hold overmuch power in this commonwealth.  But, no, we don't need to be paying our state thieves legislators any more, and we certainly don't need to be giving war chests to their bosses for the more generous doling-out of patronage funds.

Back to the Future Bargain

Did you know there's an online DeLorean parts store?  (Who collects those things anyway? Ick.)  Well, I didn't.  Of course, there's a search function.  Flux capacitors are about six grand.  (HT: Erik)

So My Six-Year-Old Has Been Bugging Me For An iPod

My older boy wants an iPod in the worst way.  He's been addicted to my iTunes for about a year now, typically cranking the volume to the limit of my Harman/Kardon Soundsticks and playing a single song over and over and over.  It wasn't so bad when he was addicted to American Pie, because the song is nearly ten minutes long and he'd play it two or three times and then move on.  But then he discovered the Ramones.

Blitzkrieg Bop at maximum volume ten times in a row can get to you.  (Plus, he always leaves the Mac volume cranked, so when I come back to the computer a system beep stops my heart for a second.)  Tired of all that, I started lending him my iPod.

Self-Abortion and Honor Killings - How Can I Draw a Parallel? Like This:

The case of a Dominican woman who self-aborted her pregnancy will soon be national news and draw the attention of everyone interested in abortion, women's rights, and delivery of medicine, to name a few.  It's a tricky case.  When we let people from backwards cultures enter and remain in this country, we are bound to get more of this:

illegally taking prescription anti-ulcer pills to induce an abortion, a risky technique common in her native land that resulted in the death of her premature baby.

Self-aborting viable babies, honor killings, and clitoral circumcision are a few of the stone age techniques these third world countries export to us with their trespassers.  After her prison term, this woman should be deported, and we need to stop the incoming tide.