This is one of the stupider things you’ll see on TV in a while.

The entire point that the guest is trying to make is that there is a 60-second gap between when you see the light pole and tree go down, and when you start to see any significant smoke. But, watching a video with no smoke is BORING! So they edit the tape to make the smoke come up instantly. Then the guy is left foundering about trying to figure out if the tape has been edited, and trying to describe whether the smoke that we’re seeing started instantly, or seconds afterwards, or if this is the smoke that didn’t start until 60 seconds in. The viewer is left completely perplexed, but at least you get to see a lot of smoke, and man, that’s good TV!

By the way: I never watched any of these Fast and Furious things, but we liked that guy when he was in the corny movie about the dogs.

This seems like it would be a neat Christmas gift. Saw it mentioned in Popehat’s Twitter stream.

I’m not much of a beer drinker, but I know people who would go crazy over an appliance like this. (I know other people who would turn their nose up at it as somehow inauthentic.)

UPDATE: More info on the company at their Kickstarter page, here.

Received in the mail: Michael Connelly’s new book The Gods of Guilt.

Can’t start it tonight. I tend to lose sleep when I start reading his books. I may save it for the Christmas vacation; we’ll see.

Real Man of Genius David Horsey at the Los Angeles Times:

Before noon Monday 375,000 Americans logged on to HealthCare.gov and discovered that, though the federal website is working far better than at its launch in October, it still runs into problems when demand gets too high. That is both the good news and the bad news for Republicans who are hoping to use Obamacare as their prime attack point in the 2014 congressional elections.

For the GOP, continuing glitches in the online delivery system for the new national healthcare market reinforce the argument that the Obama administration has tried to do too much, too fast without really understanding the enormity of the job. That is the upside for Republicans. The downside is that there is obviously a demand for the product Obamacare is trying to deliver and, by the time the election rolls around, millions of voters may have forgotten the website bugs. Instead, they may be pleased that healthcare coverage is no longer out of reach for them and they will not want to see it taken away by a Republican Congress.

Two parts bolded there, one to make a serious point, and one for grins.

WHY SO SERIOUS?: Let’s start with the serious part first: ObamaCare must be working because there is a demand for the product!! Well, Mr. Horsey, given that ObamaCare’s requirements mean that as many as 10 million Americans will receive cancellation notices by the end of the open enrollment period (never mind the looming changes in the group market when the employer mandate hits), yeah, I guess there is a demand. Caused by the law itself.

This is, in your mind, a good thing? What are you, some cartoonist who was given a column or something?

Oh. You actually are?

Awkward.

I thought it was Ronald Reagan, but the Google tells me it’s Harry Browne, who said:

The government is good at one thing: It knows how to break your legs, then hand you a crutch and say, “See, if it weren’t for the government you wouldn’t be able to walk.”

Except that here, they’ve broken your legs, and are holding your crutches just out of reach (try logging in again 30 minutes later!), while telling the world it’s a good thing they are almost providing you those crutches, because clearly, there is a demand for them.

AND NOW FOR THE GRINS: I do think, however, that Horsey is alllllllmost on to something when he says Republicans argue that Obama tried to do too much without really understanding the enormity of the job. That’s not quite what we’re arguing, though. We’re arguing that Obama tried to do too much and that Americans didn’t understand the enormity of the job.

You know what enormity means, right, Mr. Cartoonist?

I think Americans are starting to understand the enormity of ObamaCare, Mr. Horsey.

That’s what worries you, isn’t it?