Wednesday gloatfest briefs

And it’s Walker for the win: A eleven seven-point victory, but it was “too close to call” according to all the exit polls. Which just goes to show you: Exit polls are bullshit.

Changed your LinkedIn password: Millions of passwords were stolen. Go online and change yours now, even if you may not be in the stolen accounts. It never hurts to change your password from time to time.

His memory will be a blessing: Ray Bradbury, one of the last of the science fiction greats, died today, and our world is a little bit poorer for that. One of my favorite memories was attending the San Diego Comic Con in the 1980s–back before it grew to be the behemoth that it is and when it was mostly about, you know, comic books–and seeing Ray Bradbury and Dick Giordano among the autograph tables. The children were ignoring these two greats of comics and SF for the younger artists and comic writers. I went up to them, politely asked them to sign my program, calling them “Mr. Giordano” and “Mr. Bradbury.” I told Giordano that I’d been reading his work since I was a child, and he made some sort of joke about how that was what, last year? Then I told him that I was older than I looked, and that I was in my thirties. “In that case,” he said, “you can call me Dick.” They were warm and kind and I still treasure that program book. Fahrenheit 451 is probably his best-known work, but if you’ve never read “I Sing the Body Electric” or his other short story collections, you are missing out.

Even the Dems are pissed at Obama’s national security leaks: Yeah, leaking vital national security information so that you can pump up your ego may not be the best way to impress even your own team. The Valerie Plame affair? A big freaking deal. Screwing double agents and ruining possible intel in the bin Laden assassination and others? Hey, it’s all good, because Obama gets to say he killed bin Laden.

Meanwhile, back in Israel issues: Mahmoud Abbas is still insisting Israel accept the deal he pushes as is, no negotiation, etc., etc., warning that it may not be on the table very much longer. Good, then we can get back to negotiations. Meanwhile, the Islamist running Turkey was running his mouth again:

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told the conference the Palestinian issue remained the “the most important problem threatening peace and stability in the region”, and said there was mounting anger with Israel over its policies.

Really? Bigger than Syria? Bigger than Sudan? Bigger than Libya, Lebanon, Iran? Really? The Palestinian problem takes precedence over all of that? Just as the unions are learning that no, Americans really don’t think that taxpayers should be footing their medical benefits and pensions, the Palestinians are learning that the world really doesn’t give a damn about their issues, because things like not being killed by Bashar al-Assad’s death squads is a far more pressing issue.