Patterico's Pontifications

7/30/2013

Weiner Communications Director Calls Woman “Twat,” “Cunt,” and “Bitch”

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:56 pm



Now that’s communicatin’!

Tuesday was an angry day in Weinerland.

The campaign staff awoke to see their former intern, Olivia Nuzzi, on the front cover of the Daily News. Inside the paper was an article bylined by Nuzzi in which she told a rather unflattering tale of her experience working on Anthony Weiner’s mayoral bid.

Now, Team Weiner is firing back. TPM called Weiner’s communications director Barbara Morgan to discuss an unrelated story Tuesday and she went off on a curse-filled rant about Nuzzi, describing her as a fame hungry “bitch” who “sucked” at her job. Morgan also called Nuzzi a “slutbag,” “twat,” and “cunt” while threatening to sue her.

Oh, my.

Well, it certainly is in keeping with the misogyny on display in Weiner’s “gag you with my cock” sex messages, as well as the utterly classless nature of Weiner and his wife. Maybe this woman will get a raise — or at least a crotch shot sent to her in thanks.

Soda Ban: Unconstitutional

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 5:35 pm



Beautiful:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial plan to keep large sugary drinks out of restaurants and other eateries was rejected by a state appeals court on Tuesday, which said he had overstepped his authority in trying to impose the ban.

I had this great idea for a closing line for the post, where I called Bloomberg a “soda jerk.” Hilarious! Unfortunately, no idea is new any more.

Weiner Dodges Question on Whether He is Still Sexting

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:59 am



The Daily Caller quotes Weiner not-answering a question from a journalist:

Q. There is no one you are sexting now?

A. You can quibble about beginnings, middles and ends but what we’re talking about is over a year ago.

If Anthony Weiner is dodging questions about whether he is sexting right now, Anthony Weiner is sexting right now.

In related news, the Borowitz report reveals that, in the wake of his campaign manager quitting, Weiner has named a new campaign manager: his penis.

One day after his campaign manager quit, the mayoral candidate Anthony D. Weiner named his penis to the post, telling reporters, “He was already making most of the major decisions, anyway.”

In announcing the new appointment, Mr. Weiner lavished praise upon his penis, calling him “a tough hombre” who “cares about the struggles of ordinary, middle-class New Yorkers.”

After one reporter questioned the wisdom of naming his penis to such an important role in the campaign, Mr. Weiner dismissed that concern, saying, “Look, he’s gotten me this far.”

Read the rest here.

Can Government Hackers Control Your Car Wirelessly?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:55 am



This story is a few days old, but I still want to write about it because it’s important.

The video at the bottom of this post is a must-watch video. It shows two hackers with a DARPA grant controlling functions of a car from the backseat, using a Macbook. From Forbes:

Stomping on the brakes of a 3,500-pound Ford Escape that refuses to stop–or even slow down–produces a unique feeling of anxiety. In this case it also produces a deep groaning sound, like an angry water buffalo bellowing somewhere under the SUV’s chassis. The more I pound the pedal, the louder the groan gets–along with the delighted cackling of the two hackers sitting behind me in the backseat.

Luckily, all of this is happening at less than 5mph. So the Escape merely plows into a stand of 6-foot-high weeds growing in the abandoned parking lot of a South Bend, Ind. strip mall that Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek have chosen as the testing grounds for the day’s experiments, a few of which are shown in the video below. (When Miller discovered the brake-disabling trick, he wasn’t so lucky: The soccer-mom mobile barreled through his garage, crushing his lawn mower and inflicting $150 worth of damage to the rear wall.)

“Okay, now your brakes work again,” Miller says, tapping on a beat-up MacBook connected by a cable to an inconspicuous data port near the parking brake. I reverse out of the weeds and warily bring the car to a stop. “When you lose faith that a car will do what you tell it to do,” he adds after we jump out of the SUV, “it really changes your whole view of how the thing works.”

The best part? This can, in theory, be done wirelessly.

The need for scrutiny is growing as cars are increasingly automated and connected to the Internet, and the problem goes well beyond Toyota and Ford. Practically every American carmaker now offers a cellular service or Wi-Fi network like General Motors’ OnStar, Toyota’s Safety Connect and Ford’s SYNC. Mobile-industry trade group the GSMA estimates revenue from wireless devices in cars at $2.5 billion today and projects that number will grow tenfold by 2025. Without better security it’s all potentially vulnerable, and automakers are remaining mum or downplaying the issue.

We’re getting to the point where all someone needs to do is hit a button on his keyboard that says “smite.”

In unrelated news, journalist Michael Hastings was killed recently in a fiery car wreck in Los Angeles, while reportedly working on a big story involving top government figures.

Cue Twilight Zone music; exeunt alles.

Here’s the video:


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0630 secs.