Category Archives: Celebrity
Internet Control
Al Gore invented the internet and Barack Obama is giving it away.
Who Controls the Internet
Brendan Greeley in Bloomberg Businessweek explains how it works. The system that assigns names to web servers, the Internet domain name system (DNS), is run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann). Icann is under the control of the U.S. Commerce Department. The government announced in a news dump last Friday it’s giving up that control.
Countries like China and Russia want that power to go the U.N. Then they would have influence over which websites get domain names. Without a domain name you’re nobody. As Greeley puts it:
It’s a bad sign that the U.S. has chosen to give up this power. It means that the administration doesn’t feel that it can get away with holding onto it, diplomatically, which means that on this issue, we no longer enjoy the support of countries such as Germany. Perhaps it was that time we tapped Angela Merkel’s cell phone.
Between the Ferns
In an attempt to reach his target audience of young customers for ObamaCare, the president appeared on the Zack Galifianakis show, Between Two Ferns.
The president took some flak for being unpresidential – but so what – he’s unpresidential most of the time. Here he was funny. And Galifiankis was really funny. Plus Zack is a way better pitchman for ObamaCare than Pajama Boy. Actually, he didn’t even make a pitch for the ACA. He mocked it.
Not Between any Ferns
Well, it’s all fun and games until we come to Megan McCardle’s Bloomberg analysis of the McKinsey survey of who’s actually buying ObamaCare. It’s not the previously uninsured “young invincibles”:
If the McKinsey numbers turn out to be correct, I think we should expect that the individual mandate will simply not be enforced. Otherwise, we would be “helping” the uninsured by raising the cost of the insurance available to them, and then fining them hundreds or thousands of dollars for not buying it. I believe the technical term for this is “political suicide.”
Says Jonah Goldberg, “Obamacare, was designed from the outset to screw young people, overcharging them for products they don’t need in order to subsidize older Americans.”
Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent says he’s sorry, kind of, for referring to the president as a subhuman mongrel. He’s also sorry that his words will be used against politicians he supports.
“I did cross the line, I do apologize”, Nugent said, “not necessarily to the president , but on behalf of much better men than myself, like the best governor in America, Rick Perry, and the best attorney general in America (Greg Abbott)”.
Republicans are keeping their distance.
Sochi Spy Swap
There will be no Sochi Spy Swap for Edward Snowden.
Senator Mark Warner wants to deport Justin Bieber to Canada. He could go to jail. Pussy Riot has already been there.
Pussy Rioters served Russian prison time for protesting President Putin’s human rights record. That and desecrating a church. In Bieber’s case it would be for assaulting his limo driver. Or for assaulting his jet pilot with second hand pot smoke.
No Sochi Spy Swap but Snowden Welcome
Putin says Edward Snowden is welcome to attend the Sochi Olympics. Pussy Riot, not so much.
I meant to include a shirtless Putin but ran out of room.
Peyton Manning Code Cracker
Richard Sherman cracked the Peyton Manning code. He says he and his teammates figured out Manning’s hand signals based on the situation and knew what play was coming in a advance.
