Boyd

Bledsoe:

After Hinson and his lawyer, Joe Williams, complained that he was being investigated because of racism, City Attorney Linda Miles and Acting City Manager Mitchell Johnson intervened, seized all the records and began investigating the officers who had investigated Hinson.

The one conclusion I'm willing to jump to at this point is that Wray wasn't a very savvy politician. If this was The Wire, Hinson could have been dealt with in a multitude of ways including having details of some of his behavior leaked to the media anonymously which would have put public pressure on Miles and Johnson to deal with this.

Summers:

The twin arguments that globalization is inevitable and protectionism is counterproductive for almost everyone have the great virtue of being correct — but they do not provide much consolation for the losers.

Update: Perhaps we ought to ask our resident billionaire how we might all profit from globalization.

NRO:

The last time Democrats captured the House, they held it for 40 years.

Maybe the Republicans in office should have remembered this instead of putting it all on conservative voters.

Hitchens:

But the many disappointments and crimes and blunders (the saddest of which is the utter failure to influence Iran, and the corresponding advantage taken by Tehran-backed militias) do not relieve us of a responsibility that is either insufficiently stressed or else passed over entirely: What is to become, in the event of a withdrawal, of the many Arab and Kurdish Iraqis who do want to live in a secular and democratic and federal country?

Thankfully the 600,000 number seems to have been sufficiently debunked. Yet if we pull out, it's a very real possibility for which we will bear some large measure of blame. Before we throw up our hands, we might ought to give someone besides Bush a crack. He's proven his lack of ability so thoroughly that we may be mistaking incompetence for an impossible situation.

Update: Iraq the Model:

We are in the middle of this situation now and losing is not an option.

You know what, maybe the world isn't going to harvest direct benefits from winning the battle of Iraq but the world still has to spare no effort to win this battle, again not because winning will bring direct benefits but because losing here will bring subsequent losses that would no doubt be great.

John In Carolina and KC Johnson were recently called out in an editorial by the Duke Chronicle:

...there are no editors in the blogosphere and few checks to make bloggers consistently accountable for what they write.

An unsigned editorial? They're kidding, right?

John's response.

Multiple choice.

The headline involves _______ .

A. Alabama
B. a trailer park
C. the mother passed out drunk on the couch
D. all of the above

Answer here.

Feldman:

Given the increasing instability of the Middle East, nuclear proliferation there is more worrisome than almost anywhere else on earth.

Almost?

Cone pointed to this article the other day. Shockingly, it garnered zero comments. However, I think this demonstrates the impossibility of the problem. There's nothing much to say or do about it. We just wait.

But how are today’s Muslims supposed to defend themselves, given their military inferiority? Fahd’s response is that, if they have no other choice, they may use any means necessary — including methods that would otherwise violate the laws of jihad. “If the unbelievers can be repelled . . . only by using” weapons of mass destruction, then “their use is permissible, even if you kill them without exception.”

Armey:

Rather than rolling back government, we have a new $1.2 trillion Medicare prescription drug benefit, and non-defense discretionary spending is growing twice as fast as it had in the Clinton administration. Meanwhile, Social Security is collapsing while rogue nations are going nuclear and the Middle East is more combustible than ever. Yet Republican lawmakers have taken up such issues as flag burning, Terri Schiavo and same-sex marriage.

Regarding this, to get an income tax cut, one must pay income tax. However, there are portions of high incomes that have been gotten illegally (or that have at least stretched the boundaries of fair play). To the extent that CEOs and others have gamed the system by insulating themselves from competition by stacking boards with their friends and other similar, nefarious plots, these 'elites' are bringing class warfare upon themselves. Americans don't seem to mind when someone gets ahead based on his smarts or wits or good fortune; cheating is a different matter.

Something Sean Coon turned me on to the other day.

The possible future of female swimwear.

Crook:

...an important part of the uncommitted vote has "liberal" values in the traditional English sense of that term. In the United States such people have to be called "libertarians" or "classical liberals" -- words uncommon in current political discourse, which is revealing in itself. These are citizens who favor limited government in economic affairs (unlike the Democratic base) but also in social and cultural matters (unlike the Republican base). They are instinctively pro-market, wary of big government, and no more than moderately egalitarian, which inclines them to vote Republican -- or it used to, anyway, when Republicans cared about curbing public spending. But at the same time, they are offended by what happens when politics meets evangelical religion. They take a generally permissive view of private morality, are not much devoted to tradition, and are broadly welcoming of technological and cultural innovation, rather than anxious about it.

Map of Hagan-Stone Park. Notice how you are unable to do anything useful with the map like print it.

You cannot print this document.
You cannot edit this document.
You cannot copy from this document.

You are, on the other hand, allowed to view the document on your computer screen at home and commit it to memory due to the benevolence of your friendly government bureaucrat. We work for you!

Steingart:

The only way to fight a weak dollar is to strengthen it. Many people no longer care whether the US currency still justifies the faith people seem to have in it. The new game, which amounts to playing with fire, works exactly the other way around: The dollar deserves the faith it gets because otherwise it loses that faith. Dollars are bought so they don't have to be sold. The dollar is strong because that's the only thing that can prevent it from growing weak.

Steingart:

...Americans are so optimistic that they often blur the line between optimism and naivete. Public, private and corporate debt far exceeds any previously known dimensions. Forever piously trusting in a future rosier than the present, millions of households are borrowing so much money that they end up endangering the very future they're looking forward to. The lower and middle classes have practically given up on putting aside any savings. They're going into the 21st century like a poverty-stricken, Third World family, living from hand to mouth without any financial reserves whatsoever.

Elsewhere in the article Steingart hits on the real reason for the difficulties faced by our lower and middle classes - globalization. Yet there's nothing that can be done. Globalization is an irresistible force. Attempting to close ourselves off or regulate competition away will only delay the inevitable and make the decline that much more steep when it finally comes.

Overall I am optimistic regarding the human condition. Just look at all the potential that was unleashed with the inventing of the internet. The more of us there are with the ability to capitalize on our ideas, the better off we'll all be. However, some time in the next several years there's going to have to be an adjustment of expectations within the United States. It is impossible to continue on the spending/borrowing cycle we're on. And even when there's relative good news like with the deficit only being $250 billion instead of an expected $400 billion, we only need to keep in mind the looming crisis that is entitlement spending and the nonexistent will in the country to do anything about it.

So I'm poking around the American Community Survey for Greensboro and they've got Greensboro's population declining from 223,891 to 208,552 between 2000 and 2005. This is a drop of almost 7% (the 2005 margin of error is, however, +-7539). Given the growth that is occuring around here, that is astounding.

Part of the answer may be found in Guilford County's and High Point's numbers. Guilford County went from 421,048 in 2000 to 429,603 in 2005. High Point went from 85,839 to 101,852.

Update: Lex replied in the comments at Wharton's about what may explain some of the population drop.

Your question about "falling" population, at least, I can answer off the top of my head. The 2005 population figure is lower because the American Community Survey does not count people in "group quarters" — group homes, nursing homes, jails/prisons, college dorms (a big deal in Greensboro) and the like. The decennial censuses, on the other hand, count everybody, or at least try to — including the homeless on the streets.

Update II: A note at the top of the ACS Fact Sheet says:

The 2005 American Community Survey universe is limited to the household population and excludes the population living in institutions, college dormitories, and other group quarters.

Taylor:

Given all (the) holes in the Democratic front, losing Congress to them would be a repudiation of Republicanism far beyond what the raw numbers might suggest. The Dems will have won a huge victory with next to nothing in their playbook and set the stage for a truly re-aligning election in 2008.

Right. '08 is the big one. Whatever happens next month, we're gridlocked the next two years. This will do little to salve discontent setting the stage for someone to challenge the establishment. Would that Ross Perot hadn't been such a whack job.

Alexander:

Are you better off than you were five years ago? If you live in Greensboro, there's a fair chance you aren't.

The city's median household income, adjusted for inflation, dropped almost 21 percent between the 2000 Census (which recorded 1999 income) and the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey. In 2005 dollars, the figure dropped from $46,459 in the 2000 Census to $36,733 in 2005. Most other large North Carolina cities reported drops of 11 percent to 14 percent.

Brutal.

Update: More here. No question, it's important to know what went into the study.

Update: And one among us attempts to do just that.

MacDonald:

What are we supposed to learn when a candidate talks about his faith: That he is a good person? The rich history of religious bounders and charlatans should give the lie to that hope. Nor has a sincere belief in God prevented behavior we now view as morally repugnant. There were few more religious Americans than antebellum slaveholders and their political representatives; their claim to a divine mandate for slavery was based in unimpeachable Scriptural authority.

Found a charming little town this weekend while not riding trains, climbing mountains or visiting with the Cherokees. More nice restaurants per capita than anywhere in the Western world, I'd venture.

BTW, the Cherokees really dislike Andrew Jackson.

American Indian Nations:

In response to Supreme Court Justice John Marshall’s ruling in Worcester v. Georgia, that Georgia’s laws are of no effect in Cherokee lands, President Andrew Jackson writes, “the decision of the supreme court has fell still born, and they find that it cannot coerce George to yield to its mandate.”

More popularly known as, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it."

Simmons:

7:03 — After a one-out walk to Edmonds, Willie leaves Perez in the game to pitch to Rolen. ... And thank God, because that led to Endy Chavez making the greatest catch of all-time! Holy crap! He just snow-coned a homer over the left-field wall, then threw out Edmonds to end the inning. That was like the Gary Matthews Jr. catch, only in a game that actually mattered. I can't speak.

7:04 — Still in shock.

7:05 — Just watched it for the sixth time on TiVo. Gets better every time. And kudos to Buck for nailing the call from start to finish, right down to the "Have you ever seen better?" as they went to commercial. You could have hit Chavez 10,000 straight fungos and not given him a more perfect ball to scale the wall on. One more inch and it's a homer. Wow. Can't get over that one.

7:08 — Great replays of the catch by Fox. I'm giddy. That was a "two curtain call" catch. No, really, they gave him two curtain calls. Another thing I love about great baseball catches — when they show the guy rehashing the catch with teammates in the dugout with the happy smile on his face, looking like a guy who just came home from hooking up with a hot chick and can't stop smiling as he tells his roommates the details. I love baseball.

The above isn't hyperbole. You can find the video here.

Update:

Blumenthal:

At first came the Republican Lenin, Speaker Newt Gingrich...

DeLay was the Republican Stalin...

And Dennis Hastert has transmuted from omnipotent Leonid Brezhnev into ghostly Konstantin Chernenko...

Freaking idiot. While I'm not averse to Republicans being punished, what a shame it is that they have to be replaced by Democrats.

Curtis:

In Retaliation, for example, Cook confesses that he desperately wants to own a pet monkey. He would give the monkey a sword and dress him in a suit of armor, he says. "How pumped would you be driving home from work knowing that some place in your house that there's a monkey you would battle?"

Maybe the key is that you get high first.

Peters:

Wars of faith and tribe are immeasurably crueler and tougher to resolve than ideological revolts. A Maoist in Malaya could be converted. But Islamist terrorists who regard death as a promotion are not going to reject their faith any more than an ethnic warrior can - or would wish to - change his blood identity.

Except for giving Bush a pass on foreign policy and amendments on flag burning and marriage, the rest of this looks pretty good. However, it's what I thought we were voting for the last several elections. Instead we got Harriet Miers, protectionism, exploding earmarks and a prescription drug entitlement. Why couldn't they have put those on the shelf instead of estate tax repeal, social security reform and income tax simplification?

Mohammed:

The Jews claim that Israel is their promised land. Palestinians claim, and rightly so, that they were living here for over thousand years and the land belongs to them.

Guess that settles it.

LV Review-Journal:

In an accident witnessed by a group that included Barbara Walters and screenwriters Nora Ephron and Nicholas Pileggi, Wynn accidentally poked a hole in Picasso's 74-year-old painting, "Le Reve," French for "The Dream."

A day earlier, Wynn had finalized a record $139 million deal for the painting of Picasso's mistress, Wynn told The New Yorker magazine.

Hey, the next time your kid squeezes his juice box, like you've told him not to six million times, and more juice than it seems can possibly be contained in the tiny package runs out all over the living room rug, give him a break, would ya?

Update: On the other hand, your kid ain't worth $1.3 billion. Resume discipline program.

Rauch:

Islam overlaid itself above honor and, unlike Christianity in the West, did not challenge it. Today's militant jihadism takes the ethic of honor to extremes, fixating on manly ferocity and glorious vengeance.

Thus, Bowman writes, "America and its allies are engaged in a battle against an Islamist enemy that is the product of one of the world's great unreconstructed and unreformed honor cultures." Jihadism wages not only a religious war but a cultural one, aiming to redeem, through deeds of bravery and defiance, the honor of an Islam whose glory has shamefully faded. It aims, further, to uphold a masculine honor code that the West's decadent, feminizing influence threatens to undermine.

I knew it. It's women's fault.

Comment from Nathan Tabor on this post disassociating himself from previous comments made under his name.

Powell:

Reacting to the blast, President Bush said, "The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or nonstate entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable of the consequences of such action." That was an explicit embrace of Graham Allison's concept of "nuclear accountability." Thus, according to Allison, if Kim Jong Il were to sell a weapon to bin Laden and that weapon were used against the U.S. or one of its allies, then the principle would require the U.S. to "treat this precisely like a nuclear-tipped-missile attack" and retaliate against Pyongyang. "That danger [of North Korean proliferation] has always been there," says Michael Green, until last year a senior staff member on the National Security Council. "But North Korea has a mailing address, and they know it. If there was a nuclear explosion somewhere, it would probably be traced back to them, and their country would be destroyed. That's a deterrent."

This seems to be the conventional wisdom among people who think about this stuff. Yet, how sure are we we could trace the origin of the weapon? And how much patience would there be for that with an uninhabitable, smoldering Manhattan in everyone's consciousness? And if we did have patience and figured the whole thing out three months later, what would the appetite be in the country to destroy North Korea and millions of innocent people having had time to process the event? We might be able to do it immediately and viscerally, but could we, as a whole, be ruthless and calculating enough to end the lives of millions after having had some time to process the situation?

I have no idea, but this is our new reality. With the Cold War, we knew we'd know when the missiles were on their way and we would, in turn, launch ours. Then, we'd wait. With this, we have no idea when or where or how it will come. To me, the most profound question of our time is how we will react.

The best part of Converge is hanging out in person with folks you know online.

As well as I can recall, David, Sam, Lex (I was buying his 'I'm not a liberal, I'm a true conservative' schtick until he drove away in a Volvo.), Billy, Cara Michele (Prettier in person.), Ed, Jeff (Who behaved.), David, Joe (Not as pretty in person.), Jim (Who used our exchange here to illustrate something or the other he was talking about.), Anthony (Who I got to eat lunch with.), Herb, Sean, Sue (I know it was a lot of work. Congrats.), Ben, Stewart (Who gave me a jump from an official Fox 8 news vehicle after yours truly left his lights on.), Allen, Andy, Diane, Jay, Ben, Matt, Patrick, Rob, Sarah (Also prettier in person. Husband, not so much.), Michael, Bora, Jill.

I'm sure I left someone off. Apologies. I'll update when I remember.

Elizabeth Edwards is impressive. She seems very comfortable with who she is. A highlight of her session was when Mike Krempasky endorsed Brad Miller.

Scobles are fun people. One message was be cool and look at the glass as half full. Don't worry too much about being sued or commenters who go too far. The rewards outweigh the negatives. I'll agree. It's all good. A lot of the time the problem is the prism you use to view something. Wharton said something cool in Sun's session about certain types of folks attracting commenters who go over the edge and other folks who can post on the same subject and maintain order by the nature and force of their personality.

My criticism of the conference is the microphone thing. Very distracting to try to get the device into the hands of everyone who wants to say something. Might want to set up microphones in the future that people can walk to to make a comment. Or use wireless mics that can be passed around.

As far as an unconference, eh. Seems like little more than extended Q&A. I see little reason to hype this aspect of the whole thing.

However, the positives definitely outweigh minor annoyances. Very cool for GSO. Congrats to the organizers.

Mr. Sun decided he'd have theme music for Converge. Not surprisingly he chose Morrissey.

The above is how it is done.

AP:

The University of Wisconsin put its marching band on probation because members routinely engaged in hazing and rowdiness involving alcohol and sexual acts, school officials said.

UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said a band member was pressured into shaving his head in a hazing incident and other members danced seminude during the band's trip to the Sept. 23 University of Michigan football game.

...the head-shaving incident was reported by a faculty member who believed "the individual would have preferred to keep his hair."

Reported by a faculty member because the individual would have preferred to keep his hair? Of course, he'd have preferred to keep his hair, otherwise it wouldn't be hazing now would it? Can we please find something for these highly paid, highly educated, state employed faculty members to do other than tattle tale?

The rest of it makes me think I should have taken up the trumpet.

TPM Muckraker on the WSJ story about Charles Taylor this AM via Lex:

Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) has a remarkable talent for steering federal dollars to benefit properties that he owns...

I don't care if Charles Taylor doubles as Mother Teresa in his spare time and everything he does is above board, who's to say everyone else is and does? Odds are there are a few crooks in the bunch and a ton more who don't think of themselves as crooks, but take advantage of the system with wiggle room to spare.

David Boyd Rule of Life Number 11 is that the behavior you get is the behavior you incentivize. Allow the guvment to hand out pork and people who like BBQ show up at the table.

Moulitsas:

The government has put in an infrastructure to support the region including, among many other things, roads, the Internet, government research grants, and the most important ingredient of all: education, from the lowliest kindergarten to the highest post-doc program. Such spending, while requiring a government bureaucracy that makes a traditional libertarian shudder, actually provides the tools that individuals need to succeed in today’s world. If our goal is to promote and champion individual liberty and the free market, we need government to help provide those tools to all Americans, not just a privileged few.

This is an odd, odd essay. The government should spend, i.e. take from some to give to others, to provide tools to all Americans so that they can succeed? This is libertarianism? I thought it was socialism.

Much of the essay hinges on the question of who do you fear the most - big government or big corporations? Why isn't it obvious that this is not an either/or question? Big government and big corporations have a symbiotic relationship. Want big corporations to have less power? You don't do it with bigger government, you do it with more competition. Who does more government regulation hurt the least, the guy already in business or the guy trying to get started?

Frum:

The North Korean nuclear test — if that indeed is what it was — signals the catastrophic collapse of a dozen years of American policy.

Perhaps (And believe me, I'm all for condemning the failures of American politicians at every opportunity.). However, realistically, what can be done? We obviously ought to make it as painful as possible by not supplying aid and imposing sanctions and all that stuff, but for North Korea (and Iran), becoming a nuclear power trumps everything. We're bargaining from a weak position. If Kim Jong-il wanted to make life better for his people, he'd do all sorts of things differently. Why's he going to care about sanctions or the protestations of the West when acquiring a nuke is the ultimate power trip?

The real issue here is the spread of technology. Knowledge marches ahead without regards to consequences. We're going to have to figure out some other means of getting our heads around nuclear proliferation cause it ain't stopping and there's nothing we can do about it. We're like Sears watching Wal*Mart gain on us. The rules have changed.

Macomber interview with counter-terrorism specialist Mike Tucker:

We are in a guerrilla war and we are playing reconstruction games, fighting terrorists with Pentagon lawyers and Foggy Bottom diplomats. Send the lawyers and the diplomats and the reconstruction aid specialists home. Listen to the Kurds and bring them onboard, and use their incredibly deep, broad and effective human intelligence network in all Iraq. And quit trying to hand Jeffersonian democracy to three separate and incredibly diverse cultures glued together by British mapmakers that never spoke Arab, Farsi or Kurdish. U.S. Army Delta Force commandos and U.S. Army Special Forces have adapted some of the highly-effective Kurdish counter-terrorist strategies, and likewise, been incredibly effective at taking down terrorists and insurgents, in doing so. But it would take a sea change to get the [regular] American military and the American intelligence community to listen in the first place.

Luntz:

The Republican Party of 2006 is a tired, cranky shell of the aggressive, reformist movement that was swept into office in 1994 on a wave of positive change. I knew those Republicans. I worked for them. They were friends of mine. These Republicans are not those Republicans.

The leaders of the Republican Party in 1994 were bold, passionate visionaries with the courage to go to the people with a clearly defined agenda. Issues and principles drove them. Today, their agenda stretches no further than the next election. The same people who were elected on a platform of change have become the establishment bulls who fight change today. The 1994 Republicans advocated balanced budgets. Today, they defend deficits. The 1994 Republicans wanted to eliminate government programs. Today, they propose and create them. The 1994 Republicans held themselves and Congress to a higher ethical standard. Today, they seem more interested in protecting their jobs than protecting the people they serve. They came to change Washington. Washington won.

Via JW we find a blog from a man who understands women. Gaspo:

Every part of you should naturally be appreciated as a beautiful place for a man to visit. In the end, it’s by no means impossible for men to see that sex, kissing, and touching are just forms of great, giving conversation. Show him that his own vulnerability, gentleness and openness are sexy, too…because they’re so human. You’ll have to lead the way, girl.

Excuse me while I walk over to the interstate to find an eighteen wheeler to step in front of. Tell the Taliban I was wrong to oppose them. They can have it.

Goldberg:

Democratic strategist Bob Beckel suggested this week that the mere fact Foley is gay should have “raised questions” about his friendships with pages. If Foley were a Democrat and GOP spinners suggested gays are automatically suspect as predators, the now-silent Human Rights Campaign and other gay rights groups would go ballistic.

What liberals don’t understand is that social conservatives actually believe their moral rhetoric, even when it’s politically inconvenient. That’s why GOP Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana had to resign when his marital infidelities became public during the Clinton impeachment, much to the chagrin of Democrats who wanted to advance the “everybody does it” defense of President Clinton. And that’s why vast numbers of social conservatives now want Speaker J. Dennis Hastert’s head on a pike.

Subfolder Cultural and Artistic Issues.

To Listen to Children’s Songs

Q: What is your opinion about listening to children’s songs? Are the children allowed to sing for their homeland, parents, etc. while using singing equipments?

A: Listening to ghinā’ is impermissible no matter whether it is sung by children. Also, the parents should not provide their children with musical instruments to be used in songs even though children are not bound to religious duties.

That's one way to get rid of band concerts and piano recitals.

On second thought, I'm thinking that this is all a pretty cool deal if you're the one making up interpreting the rules.

You can't make this up. Subfolder Marriage and Divorce under Newly Asked Questions.

A Wife’s right to Sexual Intercourse with Her Husband

Q: I got married 10 days ago. I do everything to make my husband happy and he loves me but he neglects to have sex with me for a long time, say two years or even more. For this reason I have not any baby and people blame me for this but I cannot tell them the truth. My husband refuses to seek a medical advice for this problem. Is he allowed to do so, i.e. not to have sexual relationship with me? Knowing that I fulfill all my domestic responsibilities and even appear beautiful in front of him and encourage him but it comes to nothing. Please, what can I do?

A: It is the wife’s right to have sexual intercourse with her husband at least once every four months. Thus, if the husband refuses to provide her with this right, she is allowed to file a complaint in a shar‘ī court of law to bind the husband to provide his wife’s right.

Every four months? File a complaint? Where do they get this stuff? Can you imagine the guy's performance after the procedings having been ordered to provide his wife her rights?

Remember those Harvard kids who used to write Ann Landers with fake questions? The Supreme Leader is being punked, right?

Update: Just caught it. Married 10 days ago. Husband withholds sex for 2 years. The SL is definitely being punked.

Via Lowder. From a recent Q & A posted (under Newly Asked Questions subfolder Fasting) at the blog of the Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei

Q: If somebody masturbates during the month of Ramadan but without any discharge, is his fasting invalidated?

A: if he do not intend masturbation and discharging semen and nothing is discharged, his fasting is correct even though he has done a ḥarām act. But, if he intends masturbation or he knows that he usually discharges semen by this process and semen really comes out, it is a ḥarām intentional breaking fasting.

Wonder how they feel about wet dreams?

Young Islamic Fundamentalist upon waking during Ramadan: That was some dream about the promised 72.

YIFUWDR: What's this?

YIFUWDR: Damn.

YIFUWDR: ...

YIFUWDR: Think I'll get something to eat.

Update: This thing is the mother lode.

To Forcibly Prevent Breaking Wind While Praying

Q: What is the ruling concerning forcibly prevent breaking wind while praying?

A: There is no objection to doing so; rather, it is obligatory not to break the prayer unless it proves unbearably hard.

Forcibly prevent, huh? Do they mean forcibly prevent themselves or someone else? I thought it was forcibly prevent themselves at first, but then thinking about it, I don't really understand where force is required. Stench?

Nordlinger:

Every day, for the last several days, I’ve read about Nobel winners — in chemistry, physics, and medicine. And all the winners are American. You have to wonder whether this is purely accidental. Or whether the United States provides the conditions in which such questing and flourishing are possible.

And if the latter is true — why wouldn’t other countries go and do likewise, instead of shaking with resentment?

Here's the list.

Gate:

Elisabeth Hasselbeck has done better than any other Survivor refuge. As one of the hosts of The View she represents the young, conservative viewpoint. She serves as a counterpoint to Rosie O'Donnell.

Fug Girls:

Confessional time: now that Star is off The View, and Rosie is on it, I am TOTALLY watching it. I know I once said some mean things about Rosie's vest, but she's kind of rad on The View, both because she's really good at the daytime talk show thing (which I had forgotten), and because I enjoy watching her watch Elisabeth Hasselbeck squeak, because it seems pretty clear that Rosie is just tolerating Elisabeth for right now, and that, when the time is right, Rosie will unleash sweet, merciless hell down upon her, and lo, it will be sweet.

Here are some hilarious Dane Cook quotes. Dane Cook does insight like nobody else.

More here.

Pretty cool story.

Energy storage has long been the bottleneck for innovation, holding back new energy-sucking features in mobile devices and preventing everything from the electric car to renewable power systems from reaching their full potential. Build a radically better battery at lower cost, experts say, and the world we know will be forever transformed.

It always pays to be skeptical, but someday for someone the hype won't be hype.

Update: More here.

TSG:

Wang throws a tailing fastball over the plate to Guillen on a 3-0 count, followed by McCarver warning that Guillen would crank that pitch if he threw it again, followed by Wang throwing the exact same pitch for strike two. "Some analysis, huh?" McCarver jokes.

Glad someone else noticed. I was howling.

I'm going to give you something now. Thank me later.

Pascali's Pizza Corner. 1814 Mt. Hope Church Rd. Right off the 85/40 exit headed east toward Burlington from Greensboro.





Map of
1814 Mount Hope Chu Rd
Mc Leansville, NC 27301-9687


I've been hearing rumors about this place for years. However, it doesn't look like much and I've passed it by. Big mistake. Good lord. I like Elizabeth's and all its spawn as much as anybody, but this is a whole other thing. Dough, sauce, cheese, garlic - all top notch, all way fresh. And the cool thing is that their slices are about the size of 3 normal slices so you can get whatever you want without having to compromise with less adventurous members of your party. I'm telling you, if you like pizza, you owe it to yourself. I haven't had anything like it other than the NYC. It's pizza crack.

Monday thru Saturday until 8. Closed Sunday.

Tucker:

Islamic fundamentalism has nothing to do with poverty or lack of education. Just the opposite, it is an ecstatic spiritual pilgrimage for people unsatisfied with banality of ordinary life -- very similar to the glorified ambitions of affluent student radicals in our own culture.

There's a lot to this, I think.

Here's the UK list:

1. Goodbye My Lover, James Blunt.
2. Angels, Robbie Williams
3. I've Had the Time of My Life, Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley
4. Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler
5. Pie Jesu, Requiem
6. Candle in the Wind, Elton John
7. With or Without You, U2
8. Tears from Heaven, Eric Clapton
9. Every Breath You Take, The Police
10. Unchained Melody, Righteous Brothers

For me? The Ninth. The glorious Ninth.

Alex:

Then, brothers, it came. O bliss, bliss and heaven, oh it was gorgeousness and georgeosity made flesh.

More here.

WSJ:

...too many Republicans now believe their purpose in Washington is keeping power for its own sake. The reform impulse that won the House in 1994 has given way to incumbent protection.

I don't even want to ask, but is there anything else left that they can screw up?

Update: If you'd have told me in 2002 when the GOP finally gained firm control of both Houses of Congress, in addition to having the Presidency, that it would come to this, I'd have called you a liar. I hate to be a 'pox on both their houses' kind of guy, but what's left? The WSJ is right, reform ain't coming from this bunch, Republicans or Democrats.

Update II: Wash Times:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away.

Fine by me. Being politically pragmatic about it, it's not like the GOP could do worse. From a small government conservative point of view, anyway.

VDH:

The new enemies of Reason are not the enraged democrats who executed Socrates, the Christian zealots who persecuted philosophers of heliocentricity, or the Nazis who burned books. No, they are a pampered and scared Western public that caves to barbarism — dwarves who sit on the shoulders of dead giants, and believe that their present exalted position is somehow related to their own cowardly sense of accommodation.

Trahant:

By 2024, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and net interest consume all revenues; the deficit hits 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).