Quote of the Indeterminate Time Interval – Jake

Jake said this the other day in the comments to my no-knock warrant clarification:

Our nation has, for all practical purposes, become not a constitutional republic of democratically elected representatives, but a plutarchy, governed by a political class to which entry generally requires significant personal wealth.

While this is a good observation, it’s today’s news that really drives it home; 80% of big dollar bundlers have received positions in the Obama administration.

Detective Conan Main Theme (Baker Street Version)

This arrangement of the Detective Conan Main Theme was featured in the series’s sixth movie, the Phantom of Baker Street.

Detective Conan (localized as Case Closed for the English-speaking market) is a popular, long-running manga and anime series (71 volumes to date, and over 600 half-hour episodes); it’s one of the few that airs during primetime. Due to low ratings on the Cartoon Network, only the first 50 episodes were broadcast in the US.

Every April since 1997, a Detective Conan movie has been released (yes, that means there are fifteen of them); the Phantom of Baker Street hit theaters in the April of 2002, and it was (if I remember right) the only movie I saw in theaters while studying abroad.

It’s a good detective show; the puzzles are interesting (even if rather obscure; sometimes they hinge on the minutiae of Japanese culture (for example, one had to do with the game of shogi)), and the characters are entertaining.

The eponymous detective, Conan Edogawa, has the appearance of a grade-schooler; in reality, he is the famous (in Tokyo, at least) high school student detective Shinichi Kudou. After witnessing a couple of criminals (Gin and Vodka of the Black Syndicate), he’s attacked and forced to drink an experimental poison. Gin and Vodka leave Shinichi behind, sure he’s at death’s door, but the poison shrinks him to the size of a young child.

In a panic when confronted in the library by his friend, Ran Mori, he says his first name is Conan, and his last is Edogawa. Ran ends up taking him to live at her house with her barely scraping by PI father.

Through the use of various gadgets, Conan solves cases for Ran’s father behind the scenes, rebuilding his reputation while trying to keep anyone from discovering that Shinichi is actually Conan; if the Black Syndicate were to learn he had survived, everyone close to him could become a target.

The Phantom of Baker Street was a good movie, but it’s worth starting the series at the beginning of the TV show; there isn’t much of an overarching plot, but new characters are periodically introduced.

Besides, if you’ve never seen it, how will you know what’s going on when the live action TV series airs in Japan this summer?

The ATF ought to be a convenience store, not a government agency

At least then naming their big plan “Operation Fast and Furious” would have been understandable; they could have hired Vin Diesel and Paul Walker to advertise for them.

Did they think it would never be investigated?

Did they think intentionally facilitating straw purchases and increasing the number of guns available to the Mexican cartels wouldn’t have any negative consequences?

Or did they just see it as a way to drum up support for more funding, since “70% of guns from Mexico (submitted for tracing) are traced to the US.”

If they really were briefed weekly on the operation’s progress, they’ve got no excuse.

And hey, if the agents complained, they were always free to go find another job.

Defund the ATF. It’s just as good an idea now as it was three months ago.

Update: More on the hearings from Frank Miniter at NRO and Jordy Yager at The Hill.

I think Mark Steyn wins the #atmfacts game

But he has an unfair advantage:

He’s Mark Steyn.

Update: Though Boehner comes in at a close second.