Eponym

When it Rains... (Václav Havel is gone)

2011-12-18T13:50:00.001-05:00

I'm Tempted to Quote Dylan Thomas...

2011-12-16T09:19:00.001-05:00

...but the grouchy old son-of-a-bitch would have (rightfully) slapped me down, if he'd bothered to notice (bloody unlikely.) Goodbye Hitchens. I, for one, will miss you.

Give Pizza a Chance!

2011-10-18T09:32:00.002-04:00

Sheesh, what could I possibly add to this?

Fantastic Four

2011-08-22T15:14:00.000-04:00

That's Susan Rice, David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Barack Obama. Somehow I doubt the Teahadists (heh, stolen from the comments in the linked piece) will appreciate this very much!

Silly Me...

2011-07-14T21:56:00.000-04:00

How did I manage to miss this tune until now?

What? Was that a little too "Free Jazz" for ya?

2011-02-07T22:50:00.000-05:00

Well, try this on for size:

Frank sure could play...

I guess I'm a...

2011-02-06T22:50:00.000-05:00

churlish, joyless dick. But while hating on the 'peas appeals to me for any number of reasons, I think I'll just post an antidote.

FTW.

The Limits of Discourse

2011-01-09T15:33:00.000-05:00

Brendan provides some real clarity regarding the looming debate about rhetoric in the wake of the Giffords shooting.

Can we blame an individual act by some loon on a specific statement by a specific prominent conservative blowhard? Probably not, not any more than we can attribute a single nasty storm to anthropogenic global warming. But, as with AGW, there is something we can say with confidence -- muck with the climate, and you increase the odds that extreme events will happen.

No Comment

2011-01-08T21:35:00.002-05:00

(h/t Angry Black Lady)

Added: James Joyner's (different) view.

Seriously Perfesser?

2010-12-27T00:08:00.001-05:00

Does Glenn Reynolds think any more highly of his readers than most of the rest of the world (that part of it consisting of people who aren't right-bloggers) seems to? I think I already know the answer to that question, obviously, or I probably wouldn't be posing it like this; but really:

JUAN WILLIAMS says that Sarah Palin can’t stand on the same intellectual stage as Barack Obama. He offers no evidence, however, for the proposition that Obama is particularly bright, and I can’t say I see a big difference.
Obama’s former colleague Richard Epstein says:

I like Obama but I reject the suggestion that he is an intellectual. He is an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual.
Personally, I think Richard Epstein’s a better judge of who’s intellectual than Juan Williams is. But I think most of the press — for whom the phrase “an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual” may also apply — is easier to fool.

I'm not here to defend Obama's status as an "intellectual," per se. I'm pretty certain that stands regardless of what I think or write about it. By definition, I think, somebody with an Ivy law degree and a history of teaching Constitutional Law qualifies. (Right, Perfesser?) But, it's clear that Williams really meant the word as an adjective, that is, somewhat less technically than what's generally meant by the noun sense of the word. And, Reynolds is reframing the question in terms of "bright"-ness, taking the claim even further from any specific sense of what an "intellectual" is supposed to be. Obviously, trivially, the claim is false (I mean, like him or not, how do you mount an honest argument that Obama isn't "bright?") and Reynolds' supporting link goes to an attack piece whose strongest on-point claim is that Obama has never published an article in the Harvard Law Review under his own name. (Most of the rest of that piece is boilerplate complaints about Obama's "leftism.")

So, Glenn Reynolds posts something about Obama on his blog that is manifestly, obviously false and doesn't even bother to try to support that claim with anything relevant, and doesn't seem at all embarrassed about that. Which leads me back to my original question. How little does Reynolds think of the people he writes for?

Inappropriate Rubbing?

2010-10-07T01:20:00.000-04:00

I wish I needed a better argument than "Catholic League president Bill Donohue is a piece of shit;" but: Catholic League president Bill Donohue is a piece of shit:

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a news story about a former priest who molested a male listed as John Doe:
On September 28, the Chicago Tribune reported that "former Chicago priest and convicted sex offender Daniel McCormick sexually abused him [Doe] while he was a grammar school student." We then learn that the student was really a middle-school student, in the eighth grade, when the abuse began. The abuse reportedly continued for five years. According to the lawsuit, "McCormack inappropriately sexually touched, hugged, rubbed and/or abused Doe."
It's time to ask some tough questions. Why did this young man not object earlier? Why did he allow the "abuse" to continue until he was 18? The use of the quotes is deliberate: the charge against the former priest is not rape, but rubbing. While still objectionable, there is a glacial difference between being rubbed and raped.

We Are Amused

2010-09-20T20:07:00.000-04:00

h/t bjkeefe

How long before we start hearing people screaming "Censorship!"?

2010-09-14T22:37:00.000-04:00

Koran burner Derek Fenton booted from his job at NJ Transit

He exercised his Constitutional Rights. Good for him. NJ Transit chose to exercise theirs. I feel bad for the guy, he has a family and he's probably basically a nice guy. The hysteria over the not-exactly-a-Mosque is hurting a lot of people and serves the purposes of nobody except racists like Pamela "Geller" Oshry.

Batshit Wins!

2010-09-14T21:35:00.004-04:00

Tea Party Wins Again; O'Donnell Beats Castle In Del.

Good grief. At least it's good news for Democrats,

So the idea here is...

2010-09-10T22:04:00.004-04:00

... that it's wrong to build an Islamic center near human remains? It's not worth pointing out how insultingly stupid this is, but does this kind of blatant demagoguery appeal to anyone except bigots? Politics in the U.S just keeps getting nastier and dumber.

Cool New Blog

2010-04-28T21:31:00.001-04:00

Clear Science.

Clear Science is dedicated to straightforward science lessons in plain English everyone can understand.

Everything here is real, hardcore science. Nothing is dumbed down, but the presentation aims to be clear. You will never be blinded with science!

Malkin Seems to Lack a Sense of Irony

2010-04-15T20:53:00.004-04:00

What else do I have to say?

Lead Story
How to spot and tag a Tea Party infiltrator
By Michelle Malkin • April 15, 2010 09:09 AM
Happy Tax Day Tea Party. Be safe out there. A few tips on how to spot and tag a Tea Party infiltrator:
1. Ask them what the 10th amendment says.
2. Two letters: B.O. (and I’m not talking about the president’s initials).
3. Glaringly obvious lack of subtlety.
4. Upside-down flags.

etc...

That "subtlety" link goes to World Net Daily," in what I can only guess to be striving for extra points.
Btw, "Upside-down flags?"

Beckbaggers

2010-04-14T21:10:00.000-04:00

@fivethirtyeight RT 59% of tea-party identifiers have a favorable view of Glenn Beck; 7% of all others do.

216!

2010-03-21T22:46:00.002-04:00

Health Care Reform passes the House!

Teabaggers on Healthcare: the apologist

2010-03-18T20:32:00.000-04:00

Americans For Prosperity? Fuck them, too.

Teabaggers on Healthcare

2010-03-17T21:16:00.000-04:00

Fuck them.

Dagmar Krause Sings Surabaya Johnny

2009-12-08T21:20:00.004-05:00

There's nobody else remotely like Dagmar Krause. From the empty lilt of "Just A Conversation" on Slapp Happy's debut, Sort Of, to the shrieking menace of "Joan" on the Art Bears' Hopes and Fears, and through all of the insouciant sophistication for which Slapp Happy was responsible; her range as a singer is incomparable. The beauty and uniqueness of her voice are also notable. Here she covers Brecht/Weill better than anybody since Lotte Lenya. There also a German version by Dagmar available (and recommended - also hear her Mack the Knife in German - my personal favorite version, even over Ella's magnificent mangling from Ella in Berlin.)

Breasts!

2009-11-24T20:10:00.001-05:00

Ann Althouse is obviously feeling a lack of Eyes on Ann!
Decolletage.

Pic h/t Brendan, TBogg.

Happy Trane Day!

2009-09-23T20:38:00.000-04:00

It's John Coltrane's birthday.

The Origin of Stupidity

2009-09-23T19:33:00.000-04:00

She has it covered, nothing more need be said.

h/t @kezboard

I missed her on Pharyngula, apparently.

Saturnebula!

2009-09-20T08:29:00.001-04:00

How did I miss posting this? This is NGC 6302, variously referred to the Bug Nebula, or the Butterfly Nebula, a bipolar (symmetric, two-lobed) planetary nebula located about 4000 light-years away, in the constellation Scorpius. It is a grand, complex example, beautifully imaged here - one of the first images, in fact, from the newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope. This is an APOD image. Click the image here to go to the APOD page. Click the image there for a higher resolution version of the photo.

Missile Defense: It Doesn't Work

2009-09-17T17:15:00.002-04:00

Here's a list of flight test results for the GMD (Ground-Based Midcourse Defense) - the system we're now not going to deploy in Eastern Europe. As you read down the table, look for the successes. You might note the FTG-05 test result (from December 5, 2008). Looks pretty good, right? Here's the associated press release. It certainly looks like the best result so far. (Up until that test, the successful results always included caveats about the speed of the target, the nature of the target, etc...) But what's missing? The salient phrase used to describe the nature of the target here is "threat representative." What I don't see is any reference to the operative definition of that phrase in this context. Do you think I'm being a little picayune? Doesn't "threat representative" mean what it seems to say? If you're at all familiar with the defense industry, you'll know that almost every bit of technical jargon is a term of art, an arbitrary designation often depicting something that seems at odds with the plain meaning of the words used. Think of "collateral damage" as a euphemism for dead civilians. If you doubt this consider the words of Jack Hitt (h/t bjkeefe):

Missile defense exists in a world of its own. It has a special budget process that exempts it from most congressional oversight, and it is pioneering a new acquisitions process that redefines the very nature of what constitutes a "threat." The system has a separate definition to denote what it means for a weapon to "work" and even what it means to "know" something to be true. The shield operates beyond the world of empirical testing, and outside the four service branches of the U.S. military.

I recommend reading the whole article, and Brendan's blog post, both linked above.

Ignoring this one result, for the moment, there is nothing in the test record that provides any degree of confidence in the GMD - none. All of the "successes" are at best, technical successes - that is they indicate some benchmark has been reached; or they're dumbed down demonstrations that something can be hit with something else, disregarding the important consideration that the ballistic properties of the target don't bear any resemblance to those of an actual target. Another factor ignored is the existence of realistic decoys - the only decoy tests listed used a small number of balloons to simulate the existence of decoy warheads. These are important benchmarks, to be sure; but, the ability to distinguish a lighter than air, comparatively slow moving soft target, from a missile warhead traveling at supersonic speeds does not provide any sort of real world confirmation of an anti missile system.

I don't see any reason to believe that the FTG-05 result provides any reason for greater confidence, based on what has so far been published.

Irreducibly Complex Edition (John McWhorter & Michael Behe)

2009-08-27T05:04:00.008-04:00

Thanks to BHtv commenter graz for posting the file.

Update:
The original diavlog has been reposted at bloggingheads.tv.

J. G. Ballard

2009-04-19T21:08:00.006-04:00

Vaughn died yesterday in his last car-crash. During our friendship he had rehearsed his death in many crashes, but this was his only true accident. Driven on a collision course towards the limousine of the film actress, his car jumped the rails of the London airport flyover and plunged through the roof of a bus filled with airline passengers. The crushed bodies of package tourists, like a haemorrhage of the sun, still lay across the vinyl seats when I pushed my way through the police engineers an hour later. Holding the arm of her chauffeur, the film actress Elizabeth Taylor, with whom Vaughan had dreamed of dying for so many months, stood alone under the revolving ambulance lights. As I knelt over Vaughan’s body she placed a gloved hand to her throat.

So begins Crash: A Novel, an iconic, controversial novel of obsession and the nexus of technology and sexuality, written in the middle of the twentieth century, when the vision of technology was best represented by modes of transportation, rather than methods of information processing. The story still seems to accurately portray contemporary modes of obsession with startling clarity.

J. G. Ballard died today. Ballard was a fiercely smart British writer, similar in many ways to his contemporary, Brian W. Aldiss, Ballard wrote science fiction that was so much more psychologically sophisticated than what was being produced at the time that his work, and that of Aldiss, Norman Spinrad and a few others that a subgenre "British New Wave" was named to distinguish it - famously represented by the Michael Moorcock edited editions of New Worlds magazine. Ballard was probably best known for his novel Empire of the Sun, and the Spielberg movie of the same name. Crash was, of course, filmed by David Cronenberg. I can't think of another author whose work would have attracted such disparate attention.

Saturnebula!

2009-04-04T22:34:00.002-04:00

What's remarkable about this beautiful image is that it's literally a scene from another galaxy. It's a picture of the Tarantula Nebula, an H II region (a cloud of glowing gas and plasma) in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest galaxies to, in fact a satellite of, the Milky way. The nebula is an extremely bright object, if it were as close as the Orion Nebula, it would cast shadows. It's also the location of the nearest supernova since the invention of the telescope. This is an APOD image, click once for the APOD page, click the image there for a high-resolution version.

Saturnebula!

2009-03-21T22:38:00.003-04:00

NGC 2818 is a strikingly attractive planetary nebula found in the southern constellation Pyxis (The Compass). The beautiful hues pictured here are the result of a sequence of exposures through narrow-band filters, highlighting emission from nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms showing as red, green, and blue in the image. This is an APOD image. Click through to see the APOD page, click the image there for a higher resolution version.

Saturnebula!

2009-03-14T09:29:00.009-04:00

This is a depiction of a pair of the most conspicuous objects in the night sky (after major solar system objects). On the left is shown one the most recognizable nebulae of all, the Horsehead Nebula. On the right, the Orion Nebula, an object bright enough to easily seen by the naked eye – it appears as the middle “star” in Orion’s sword. Both are, in fact, parts of the vast Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, an object which, despite being about 1300 light years away, has an apparent size similar to your outstretched hand held at arm’s length in the direction of the constellation of Orion. (Which itself is one of the easiest to find and recognizable patterns in the night sky.) This is one of the most beautiful and keenly observed objects in astronomy. It's a stellar nursery, (in other words a molecular cloud in which stars are actively forming) the closest such in existence, and studied pretty closely as a result.

This is an APOD image. Click the image here for the APOD page, click the image there for a detailed view.

More Kew. Rhone.

2009-03-11T19:59:00.003-04:00

Enjoy.

Kew. Rhone.

2009-03-09T23:51:00.006-04:00

I had no idea I'd find this when I went hunting YouTube for a Peter Blegvad (rhymes with egg-bad) video. Peter is a god among rock musicians and is, in my totally not humble opinion among the best lyricists of all time. Kew. Rhone. was a collaboration with John Greaves who wrote the music and Lisa Herman, who had to sing this impossible stuff. Don't try to understand it, just love it for the wacky degree of complexity, the irony, and the overall musical gorgeousness.

Things I Think Are Beautiful

2009-03-09T12:40:00.008-04:00

This is a long exposure image of the Kepler launch. The mission is, of course, a space geek's wet dream. But regardless of all that, just as an abstract thing this is a beautiful picture. Also, it is an APOD image, and all that implies. (Click image for APOD page, click image there for higher resolution version.)

Update: Not surprisingly, Phil Plait does me one better.

Limbaugh v. Obama

2009-03-08T10:06:00.016-04:00

When Michael Steele told D. L. Hughley that Rush is an "entertainer" and that some of the things he says are "incendiary" and "ugly," it's hard to imagine that the Obama administration's political operation had predicted such a perfect event to crown their decision to engage Rush directly, after Rush's "I Hope the President Fails" became a cassus belli. Nevertheless, I have to say the spectacle appears to be one of the most spectacularly successful examples of ratfucking (cf) I've witnessed, on this scale. The image of Michael Steele kissing his ring and backing away apologetically under Rush Limbaugh's steely gaze (now indelibly the Face of the Republican Party) is an image that stings on so many levels I've lost count.

The O's can count the entire episode as a big win. It's clear to me what Rush get out of this. His ratings are way up. Rush in Opposition is Rush's strongest stance - just look back to the Clinton years. The Republican party is the obvious loser. Republicans ought to be asking themselves what it is they're getting out of their alliance with Rush.

Saturnebula!

2008-12-27T09:25:00.006-05:00

The Crab Pulsar Wind Nebula (also known as a plerion, or synchrotron nebula.) At the heart of the Crab Nebula lies a pulsar, a spinning, stellar scale object with the density of a neutron, left over as the result of a supernova, in particular one caused by the collapse of a massive star. This Chandra X-ray image clearly shows some of the structure surrounding the Crab's pulsar. As usual, this is an APOD image. The picture here links to APOD page, and a click there will show a higher res view.

Merry Christmas (and goodbye Eartha Kitt)

2008-12-25T20:49:00.005-05:00

Eartha Kitt's death was announced today. I think that's a very sad thing. I recommend staying with the video all the way through "Old Fashioned Girl" to hear "Santa Baby" sung by the first, and the best, interpreter of that song. Not to mention the little poke she takes at Madonna's ill-considered attempt at the tune.

Saturnebula!

2008-11-15T21:23:00.006-05:00

Fomalhaut b. It's the first visible light image of an extrasolar planet. Though it's just a speck in this image, it's an incredible milestone. Fomalhaut itself is one of the brightest stars in the sky, located about twenty-five light years from earth in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. I'm not sure the toroidal dust disk surrounding Fomalhaut, imaged here, really counts as a nebula, as such; being apparently an analog of the Kuiper belt surrounding the Sun. However, this is such a cool discovery that bending the definition to be sure it's included in this feature seems perfectly justified. The sharp definition of the inner boundary of the cloud was one of the clues that led to the conclusion that there was a planet here to be found. The planet itself is thought to be three times the size of Jupiter, with a much larger ring system than Saturn - which might, in fact be what was actually imaged here.

This is an APOD image. Click away.

Saturnebula!

2008-11-08T15:44:00.006-05:00

Just when I think the good images of galaxies are starting to dry up, this comes along. For those who aren't aware, the Hubble Space Telescope had been offline. After having been brought back online, this was one of the first images (within the first couple of days, at any rate) captured - a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies known as ARP 147. A spectacular pair of ring-shaped galaxies, one face on, one nearly perpendicular to our viewpoint. This is an APOD image, you can click through for more explanation and a higher resolution view, as always.

Disappointing

2008-11-06T18:26:00.003-05:00

I've only recent started reading Rick Moran's Right Wing Nut House. I was surprised by several judicious posts and had decided that Moran was somebody I could agreeably disagree with. However, his reaction to Erik's fit of utter lunacy is hardly reassuring. If the Republican party is going to recover, (and that's a goal for which I really do have sympathy) they're going to need to recognize the difference between partisanship and self-parody.

Operation Paranoia

2008-11-05T23:25:00.005-05:00

Erick Erickson sure does think he's an Important Person. The anonymous McCain aids he seems so put out with are quaking in their boots, I'm sure. Malkin and Ace seem to be polishing their own batons. Jeebus. These folks need to take a breath. At least as long a K-Lo reigns at The Corner, Erik can't really be considered competitive for the title of Dumbest Political Blogger of any note. (Of course there's always plenty of competition on that score.)

Historic

2008-11-05T12:31:00.002-05:00

Less than fifty years after the Civil Rights Act was passed. What more needs to be said?

Saturnebula!

2008-11-01T21:13:00.009-04:00

Ok, in an effort to broaden this feature, since distinctive pictures of galaxies aren't an infinite resource, I'm rechristening (and retiming) it as Saturnebula. Yeah, it's a slightly goofy construction, but it's distinctive, and it's probably easier to post on Saturdays anyway - plenty of Friday Galactic Blogs went up on Saturdays in any case. I'll be pretty broad in my definition of "nebula," to encompass any cool galactic photos I find, consistently with older definitions like that of Messier.

This particular beauty is a depiction of the Veil Nebula, the leftovers from a supernova in the direction of the constellation Cygnus at an approximate distance between 1400 and 2600 light years. It spans three degrees in the night sky (six times the apparent size of a full moon) but is notoriously difficult to see in visible light, despite an apparent magnitude of about seven, which nearly as bright as the dimmest naked eye stars (corresponding to an apparent magnitude of about six.)

It's an APOD image, and you know the drill.

The Obamaclypse Is Upon Us!

2008-10-25T23:52:00.003-04:00

(Posted first on Bloggingheads.tv - but it fits in perfectly on the blog.)

Spooky secondary effects of an election apparently leaning toward the Democrats! Mark Levin's head literally explodes!

The following pull is almost randomly selected from the gusher of a single run-on graf of stream-of-consciousness word spew. It's lucky this election is coming very soon, if only to preserve whatever sanity is left among the right-wing punditariat. Good golly.

Excerpted from The Obama Temptation:
Charles Gibson and Katie Couric sought to humiliate Palin. They would never and have never tried such an approach with Obama. But beyond the elites and the media, my greatest concern is whether this election will show a majority of the voters susceptible to the appeal of a charismatic demagogue. This may seem a harsh term to some, and no doubt will to Obama supporters, but it is a perfectly appropriate characterization. Obama's entire campaign is built on class warfare and human envy. The "change" he peddles is not new. We've seen it before. It is change that diminishes individual liberty for the soft authoritarianism of socialism. It is a populist appeal that disguises government mandated wealth redistribution as tax cuts for the middle class, falsely blames capitalism for the social policies and government corruption (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) that led to the current turmoil in our financial markets, fuels contempt for commerce and trade by stigmatizing those who run successful small and large businesses, and exploits human imperfection as a justification for a massive expansion of centralized government. Obama's appeal to the middle class is an appeal to the "the proletariat," as an infamous philosopher once described it, about which a mythology has been created.

Mark Steyn Continues...

2008-10-21T22:41:00.002-04:00

to be an ass. And, if I'm not mistaken he's just conceded the next two elections to Obama!

Stupid Corner Tricks

2008-10-21T22:36:00.003-04:00

Does Mark Levin Imagine that Colin Powell gives a rat's ass whether or not he has Mark's "respect?" Jeeze, those guys think a lot of themselves.

While I'm at it...

2008-10-20T11:27:00.007-04:00

At Rick Moran's apparently ironically named Right Wing Nuthouse, a commendably sane post.

Liberalism is the yin to conservatism’s yang. We need each other and can’t make America a better place without the constant tug and pull of conflict between the two ideologies. What in many countries is a source of revolution, our war of ideas with liberalism and theirs with conservatism makes us both better. It forces us to come up with new approaches to solving problems in order to compete in the marketplace of ideas. This is a free market that Obama, no matter what his proclivities, cannot shut down.

To which, I might add, nor could George W. Bush.

I haven't really followed Moran's blogging - I don't know if he always been quite this reasonable, but I'm definitely going to keep reading.

Red State of Mind

2008-10-20T10:40:00.007-04:00

I have a masochistic streak, apparently, that compels me to spend a lot more of my blog-surfing time among the nuttier reaches of the Rightosphere than among friends and allies. I think it's easier to get a feel for the zeitgeist by reading the stuff derived from what are, to me, the most alien (but widespread) points of view. Julian Sanchez pointed out, a few days ago, the low bar set by commenters at Red State - more accurately, Sanchez was taking note of the level of paranoia - but I think it amounts to about the same thing. I commented there on the quality of Erick Erickson's posts, specifically, and the example he sets for the mob of commenters there.

All of which leads me to this crystaline example of complete disingenuousness:

Turns out, according to sources we have in Texas, that Nick Lampson's wife is not even registered to vote in Texas 22.

She lives in Beaumont, TX - at an address well outside of the district - and this is where she is registered. She's in the 2nd District, and is represented by Republican Ted Poe. The address is on Collier Road in Beaumont.

Why does this matter? Well, two weeks ago, Democrat Congressman Nick Lampson's cronies accused Pete Olson of voter fraud. They claimed he had voted improperly in a Connecticut Special Election while he was working for Texas in Washington, D.C.

Ok, that's the setup. Now for the dénouement:

Even the most basic research shut down this wacky theory. It turned out that on the day of the supposed vote, Pete Olson was traveling from Capitol Hill to Texas on Senate business in his role as Chief of Staff for Texas Senator John Cornyn. He has the airline receipt to prove it.

And as you might expect, it also turned out that Connecticut does not require a photo ID or signature from anyone casting a vote. Of course, the idea that Olson would somehow go from 1998-2005, voting like clockwork in nine different elections (according to the Democrats' own records), and interrupt it to drive up to Connecticut to participate in an unimportant special election just doesn't pass the smell test. Well, for anyone but crazy liberals who happen to be supporting Nick Lampson, like Matt Glazer and others.

Pete Olson's experience shows us why you should be required to show a government issued photo ID before voting. But let's hope Nick Lampson wasn't counting on his wife's vote - if he gets it this year, something's wrong.

So Nick Lampson's wife has a different address than he does. Somebody who might know Nick Lampson accused Pete Olsen of voter fraud. Some mumbo-jumbo about a "smell test." (Why is it that nutcase conservative demagogues insist on sniffing everything?) Et voilà an apparent opening to smear Lampson about a future event and his wife's hypothetical voting habits.

This guy makes AoS look reasonable.

Shorter McCain Surrogates on Ayers

2008-10-12T15:10:00.001-04:00

We need a premise to keep uttering the word "terrorist!"

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-09-19T22:36:00.003-04:00

Triangulum, aka M33, is the second closest major galaxy - after the Andromeda Galaxy - at a mere three million light years. It's also generally considered the most distant object, though M81 (twkeve million light years away) has been observed by a few experienced observers, and of course there was an event earlier this year, which for a short time was a naked eye object at 7.5 billion light years. M33 is a good sized galaxy - third largest in the Local Group, which, of course, also include Andromeda and the Milky Way.

This is an APOD image. Click the picture to view the APOD page for it. Click the image on that page for a higher resolution view.

LHC First Light

2008-09-10T09:07:00.005-04:00

Last night a proton beam made its first lap of the Large Hadron Collider, with minimum drama, and almost no ending of the world. (Of course we did inch ever so closer to the Big Rip overnight, but that would have happened even without the LHC.)

Isaac Hayes

2008-08-12T22:12:00.006-04:00

Kathy G posted this first. But it's timely, and fits a theme: songs my band covered reluctantly despite my bullheaded enthusiasm. The bastards.

Isaac Hayes was sui generis and a sublime artist.

Ok, just for contrast

2008-08-12T21:55:00.005-04:00

This is much closer to the orginal, though it lacks Eno's wailing, screaming, siren/synth. This is how to achieve weight and power with rock and roll. Keep control of the pace, keep the energy just a hair under a boil, and hint at letting it all just crash through to the surface. Cale is masterful when he's at his best.

Sorry Elvis...

2008-08-12T21:48:00.004-04:00

But John Cale owns this song. Though this isn't the best recorded version by Cale. That would be the version on the Slow Dazzle album. Still this is pretty nice.

Not Every Violation of the Law Is a Crime!

2008-08-12T21:33:00.005-04:00

Especially if the laws were broken by Bush administration employees and are being judged by same. Mukasey:

Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws.

So despite the far-reaching consequences of politicizing the Justice Department, despite the obvious moral hazard in letting your boss's people off easy, despite the clear violation of the law, nobody gets prosecuted. It must be nice to be defendant, judge, and jury on the same case.

We'll see if Patrick Leahy is a hero, or is just paying lip service on this one, but he's making some good mouth noises (NYT):

Mukasey's remarks "appear premature based on the facts and evidence that congressional investigators and the inspector general have uncovered so far"

Mukasey sees no need to adjust the status of employees who were hired under the flawed process. But he does encourage those were wrongfully treated to reapply.

What a guy.

These guys can't leave soon enough.

While I'm Complaining about McCarthy

2008-08-09T16:26:00.004-04:00

How much bad faith does somebody need to exhibit before we just dismiss their opinions out-of-hand? Andy McCarthy:

I suppose if we are thinking about turning our country over to the second Carter term — or the first McGovern — it shouldn't surprise anyone to see Russia go into its Aghanistan mode ... or Czechoslovakia ... or Hungary ... or (as Roger reminds us) Georgia.

What purpose does this serve? He's floating a causative relationship between Obama's candidacy and post-Soviet aggression? There's a damn Democrat running for president! The Russians can see we're weak and are taking advantage! He's "joking," of course.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-08-08T21:02:00.002-04:00

That's quite a bridge! 22,000 light years long and spanning the gap between the galaxies NGC 5216 and NGC 5218, known collectively as ARP 104. Obviously in close a gravitational relationship, these two galaxies look appear to be in the process of tearing each other up, probably to merge in the next hundred thousand years or so. They're relatively close to us at a distance of about seventeen million light years in the direction of the Big Dipper. It's an APOD image, and you know what to do.

Hamdan and McCarthy

2008-08-08T00:11:00.009-04:00

Andy McCarthy thinks the Hamdan verdict is a disgrace. The guy only got five-and-a-half years and is getting credit for time served.

It is the worst sentence I have ever heard of. It demonstrates an unseriousness about the war and the stakes involved.

Andy hyperventilates a bit here, I think. The guy is a driver. It seems to be acknowledged that he wasn't capable of planning or leading, he's just a guy who did low level jobs. A servant, essentially. By Andy's lights Hamdan provided

material support to our enemies, [...] actually protected bin Laden and transported weapons for al Qaeda,

all of which is, I assume, literally true. But it's a silly, bad faith exaggeration of Hamdan's apparent role. Does every grunt in Bin Laden's organization deserve life behind bars? What purpose does that serve, except to feed Andy and his fellow travelers' thirst for revenge, even when it's overblown and mostly inappropriate. Get your hands on Zawahiri, then try for a life sentence. Five years in GTMO ought to be enough for a the guy who changed Bin Laden's flat tires.

Young Tom Waits

2008-08-02T23:24:00.004-04:00

Ok, I've been lax. Every few months, the effort of putting up blog posts begins to seem like a burden. So, in a naked attempt to make up for a complete lack of effort, here's a nice example of Tom from his maudlin period. Young Tom, Old Tom, it's all good to me.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-08-02T10:58:00.004-04:00

Need visual proof of General Relativity? Today's your lucky day! The white smeary dot at the center of this image is a relatively normal seeming, distant, apparent elliptical. The partial ring surrounding it is another galaxy, lined up distantly behind the first, whose image has been lensed by the gravitation of the closer galaxy. Known as Einstein Rings such objects aren't necessarily galaxies. The phenomenon only occurs in instances where the two objects are nearly perfectly lined up. It's an APOD image and you know the drill.

Queen of Outrage

2008-07-30T13:46:00.005-04:00

Michelle Malkin would like us to "suck it up." More particularly she'd like those facing the loss of their homes in the current housing crisis to do so. Blaming "predatory borrowers"(!) and bolstering her argument with a single anecdote about a family who after getting some help from a cable show to finance their home, then turned around and mortgaged it to help a family owned construction business. Whom of course she feels compelled to identify by name. If that family doesn't get much relief from the bailout Bush just signed, I shan't get too teary eyed. But using people whose circumstances are as atypical, not to say oddball, as those of the family she's chosen as victims, er examples, as support for her argument is just stealing bases. But of course I don't believe Malkin would know how to frame an honest argument if she tried.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-07-25T22:37:00.002-04:00

This is one of the most memorable galactic images I've seen. Two vivid spirals, obviously interacting with each other, each in its own plane. What a beautiful sight. Collectively known as Arp 271, they comprise another selection in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. Also designated as NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 the pair is about ninety million light years away and spans about 130,000 light years. Click the image for the APOD page, click the image there for a closer view,

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-07-19T20:52:00.003-04:00

Twisted, distorted spiral NGC 3718 and its companion NGC 3729 seem to be locked in each other's gravitational embrace. Both are fairly large, somewhat peculiar spiral galaxies located relatively nearby at about 52 million light years. They're about 150,000 light years from each other, or approximately fifty percent more distant than the estimated diameter of the Milky Way. In the night sky they can be found in Ursa Major near what may a familiar sight to some visitors to this blog, the Hickson Group of galaxies, another beautiful and somewhat anomalous tableau. As usual this is an APOD image. Click once for the APOD page, click the image there for a more detailed look.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-07-12T11:12:00.004-04:00

I make no apologies for finding pictures of spiral galaxies incredibly beautiful. The subject of this photo is NGC 7331, which at 40 million light years, is relatively nearby. Large spirals like this are often compared to the Milky Way, and this one particularly; but, with apparently at least three spiral arms (the Milky Way seems to have two) and lacking (at least to my eyes) a strong central bar, I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. Click the image for the APOD page, click through there for a high resolution version of the image.

Rest In Hell

2008-07-05T06:44:00.005-04:00

Worst Senator of my lifetime. It's probably inappropriate not to note that he seemed to soften a bit after retirement, and reportedly worked hard to help control AIDS in Africa after leaving the Senate. But, nevertheless, here's the face of poisonous, bitter, racism and homophobia.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-07-04T12:18:00.003-04:00

This is a composite image of the galaxy known as M81, built from data in four bands, (quoting from the APOD page)

X-ray data (blue) from the Chandra Observatory, infrared data (pink) from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and an ultraviolet image (purple) from the GALEX satellite, with a visible light (green) Hubble image.

The inset is X-ray band data showing some detail on black holes in the central structure of the galax, located about 12 million light years away, which has been featured here before.

It is an APOD image and all the usual stuff applies.

It Probably Oughtn't Be Called Rock Music

2008-05-31T22:55:00.005-04:00

but, this is, in my not-so-humble opinion, among the greatest electric guitar songs of all time. Robert Fripp is so unlike anyone else playing the instrument he really belongs in a class by himself. Although ultimately it would be hard to exclude Adrian Belew from that class.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-05-31T00:06:00.003-04:00

Another beautiful example of the effect of close gravitational interactions and the seemingly infinite variations in galactic structure that can result. This is AM 0644-741 (the "AM" designation is new to me.) One of a class of "ring galaxies," it is officially a lenticular galaxy. It is about 300 million light away in the southern constellation Dorado. It's an APOD image, and, as always, clicking through is rewarded with additional information and higher resolution views.

More What's Wrong With Texas

2008-05-24T22:24:00.002-04:00

This time via Pharyngula. Hint: more stupid religious cultists, but this time with real jobs.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-05-24T19:52:00.006-04:00

Between the foreground dust clouds and diffuse gas (a bit of our own galaxy - an Integrated Flux Nebula - and the intergalactic background, this strikes me as a canonically beautiful image. The galaxies in the background compose the M81 group of galaxies. M81 (Messier 81) itself with M82 (Messier 82) are a gravitationally locked pair interacting visibly, as I've blogged in the past. This is an APOD image.

Click once for the APOD page, click through there to see the higher resolution image.

What Is Wrong With Texas?

2008-05-22T21:07:00.003-04:00

Firstly there are far too many unutterably dumb religious sects. Secondly, there are apparently state appeals court judges who aren't any brighter. In the matter involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), the Mormon splinter group accused of the organized statutory rape of young girls, the Texas Third Court of Appeals has ruled that the state has failed to show that the 440 children seized in a raid last month were in any immediate danger. Apparently pedophilia, as long it's based on religious beliefs, does not constitute what this judge believes to be a danger to children.

New York Times:

"Even if one views the FLDS belief system as creating a danger of sexual abuse by grooming boys to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and raising girls to be victims of sexual abuse... there is no evidence that this danger is 'immediate' or 'urgent'," the court said.

I find this ruling stunning. I think this judge shows a remarkable indifference to civilized norms, I imagine as a response to some kind of badly formed idea of religious freedom - though I'd be hard pressed to prove that last assertion. I hope this ruling is overturned on appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, and I hope that reason is found to remove the idiot judge who issued it.

No Doomsday in 2012

2008-05-20T08:46:00.001-04:00

Really. Go ahead and buy that dream house.

H/T Bad Astronomy Blog.

Huckabee Seems Like a Decent Guy

2008-05-17T19:12:00.004-04:00

Dan Drezner makes a good point. I'm glad Huck isn't going to be the next President. I can't help feeling a lot of affection for the guy - and I'm pretty grouchy when it comes to people responsible for what I think are disingenuous anti-science rants - a sin Huck is certainly guilty of. He nonetheless comes off as a basically sane, intelligent, decent guy for the most part. It's a paradox.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-05-16T23:29:00.005-04:00

Viewed side-on a spiral galaxy can reveal an entirely different kind of view. This interesting, fat looking, edge-on spiral is NGC 3628, a member of the Leo Triplet - a small group, three galaxies, which also include the spirals M65 and M66. The long tidal tail, seems to evidence of gravitational interaction with the other members of the group. This APOD image links back to the APOD page for the image that, as always, links to a higher res version.

Spackerman Gets It Right

2008-05-11T09:21:00.005-04:00

Spencer Ackerman:

Welcome to the next four years. These people have plunged the country into two failing/failed wars and killed hundreds of thousands of people. (Also, they pulled off a housing crisis and a healthcare crisis and an environmental crisis and when an entire city drowned the administration left the black people to die.) There’s no alibi: when conservatism had its chance to govern, this is what it yielded. If I was one of them, I’d bitch about Rajiv Chandrasekaran or Jeremiah Wright or whatever was necessary to distract people from what I did when I had the chance to do it. Get ready for years and years and years of this puerile and tiresome nonsense.

The whole post is about partisan whinging among people on the public payroll - and is worth reading in its own right. But, this paragraph stands out as a crystalline depiction of current reality.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-05-09T19:44:00.004-04:00

This nicely situated galactic collision is close enough and oriented such that we have an extremely good, detailed snapshot of the ongoing interaction between two apparently merging galaxies. One hundred million light years away, it's almost in our neighborhood (the furthest visible galaxies are thirteen billion light years distant), located in the Hydra-Centaurus supercluster, the nearest supercluster except for our own.

Philosemitism...

2008-05-02T10:35:00.006-04:00

John Derbyshire's felicitous neologism, ought to, in my opinion, be promoted to the status of permanent part of the vernacular. And since my friend bjkeefe has outed me as a cheerleader for National Review's The Corner group blog, this seems like the right time to assert this. Also I'd like to quote part of the ferocious anti-anti-science bit Derb posted there today:

One of the best reasons to be a philosemite in our time is sheer gratitude at the disproportionate contribution Jews have made to the advance of Western civilization, and to our understanding of the world, this past two hundred years. The U.S.A. dominated the 20th century in culture and technology, to the great benefit of all mankind, in part because of the work done in math and science by the great tranche of pre-WW2 immigrant Jews from Europe.

Derb has his detractors, and I've seen him accused of racism - a charge I know he'd deny despite the acidity of some of his commentary. The clarity of his declaration on this embodies a view I endorse completely.

Ethanol - Left and Right

2008-04-25T19:11:00.003-04:00

I've disagreed with David Freddoso here, in the past. I fully endorse his point of view in the following:

On many issues, Conservatives have more in common with ideological liberals than we do with the business interests that come to Washington looking for a handout. Our goal should be to persuade the Left — to use clear failures we agree on, like ethanol — to demonstrate that Big Business will always come to Washington for handouts until Washington stops giving them altogether. Each new handout is the next ethanol, the next sugar — and once you've started giving a handout, it never ends.

Read the whole thing. I may disagree with Freddoso on many things, but he's one of the reasons that reading The Corner is far from a waste of time.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-04-25T09:45:00.005-04:00

The object pictured in this dramatic non-APOD view of an ongoing galactic collision is known as Arp 148. "Arp" is the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. The object to the left is the smaller of two galaxies which is apparently just completing the process of passing through the center of the larger object, leaving a ring shaped galaxy in its wake. Spectacular!

H/T Bad Astronomy Blog. Clicking the image, will link you to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope page for this object, and higher resolution views are offered there.

It's All About Me!

2008-04-23T09:14:00.004-04:00

I initially posted this on as a comment on BloggingHeads.tv, but it works here pretty well, so I'm reposting it:

The only presidential candidate I've ever voted for who actually won that election was Bill Clinton. And since his second term wasn't really much in doubt that means I've only cast one effective presidential vote in my life. My primary record is even more dismal, with a perfect zero percent success rate. I've been dithering between Obama and Hillary for months, maybe leaning slightly towards Obama, but as I've said before: I don't care who wins as long as the the winner in November isn't a Republican. So, yesterday was the primary in PA, a beautiful perfect morning to walk to my local polling place - a gentle breeze at sixty-eight degrees, chirping birds and flowering trees under blue skies - and pull the lever for Obama. At that moment Obama must have heard a thunderclap, as the skies darkened and a bony finger revealed itself among the clouds pointing his way while a low voice chuckled unpleasantly.

Ok, maybe it's not all about me. I still really only care that whoever emerges from the primary process on the Dem side is an effective candidate, and it increasingly looks like both of them are dismayingly incompetent. I would like, at some point, to feel as if my political judgment was shared by a majority of my neighbors - but right at the moment it looks to me like McCain is trending toward consensus support.

Which, getting back to my first point, is somehow appropriate - I would have strongly considered voting for him in 2000 - I wasn't a fan of Gore's at the time - so naturally he was womped by the most ridiculous opponent imaginable; this time I've decided that I couldn't vote for him under any circumstances, and right now, at this moment, it appears as if the skids are greased, his glide path to the Presidency seemingly assured.

Or maybe I'm just depressed - it's still a long way to November.

Cat With a Long Thin Wire

2008-04-19T01:01:00.003-04:00

Cat. Theremin. Hilarity ensues.

Stolen shamelessly from bjkeefe.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-04-18T11:34:00.006-04:00

This is a beautifully detailed image of the Sunflower Galaxy, aka Messier 63 and NGC 5055.

It's a spiral on the same scale (approximately one hundred million light years across) as the Milky Way, and its structure is so clearly seen that it was one of the first so-called "spiral nebulae" to recognized as such. The smaller image is an infrared view showing just how intricately the spiral structure of this object is revealed. Click the main image for the APOD page. Click through for the higher resolution view.

Not Much Chance Of That

2008-04-16T18:10:00.002-04:00

Instapundit:

ERIC MULLER UNCOVERS a truly unforgivable act by John Yoo. A Dukakis endorsement! Hell, I voted for Dukakis myself. Remember that if you find yourself starting to repose much trust in my political judgment.

This Is Childish, I Know

2008-04-15T09:30:00.011-04:00

bjkeefe has taken note of a truly inspired bit of snark. If you’re familiar with Jonah Goldberg’s book Liberal Fascism then you might recognize the Ezra Klein blurb as a spot on parody.

The following pull from a Daniel Gross piece that I saw through Kevin Drum:

...The proposal to give new tax breaks to homebuilders and banks is yet another example of the pernicious trend of privatizing profit and socializing losses, which is gnawing away at faith in the system. Dilute the shareholders, not the taxpayers.

and a bit more from Drum:

The lesson here is this: Republicans will never give up. No matter what the problem at hand is, the solution is a corporate tax break of some kind. They will never allow a bill to pass Congress unless there's a tax cut included, no matter how stupid or misguided. Period.

provoked the idea for this picture.

So, admittedly Jonah’s cover image is ultimately more clever than my parody. Still, Jonah’s book is about the most irritating political stunt in the past little while. A little more snark seems like just the right thing.

I'll Take Option 4 Please!

2008-04-11T23:17:00.005-04:00

One of the infinite number of things about which I am not an expert is economics. Despite this I'm convinced that the biggest culprit in the current mortgage crisis is a combination of bad regulation, not enough regulation, and bad actors on the financial supply side, if you will. I hear plenty of clucking about how people who made bad decisions should suck it up and live with the consequences. One of the reasons I feel pretty confident that that's mostly BS is that there are people who do seem to have some expertise, and who write about these topics in a way that seems oddly independent of the players. Hint: there aren't many in that latter category writing on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.

Having gotten to the end of that long wind-up, this was nicely said.

My heart goes out to people who don't have the luxury of prudence.

Too bad those without that luxury will probably also go without the luxury of help. However, if you lend money rather than borrow it, then providence may smile on you.

Bow Shock

2008-04-11T12:26:00.004-04:00

More cool astronomy, this time from Nasa's Image of the Day gallery. The border between the outgoing stellar wind from young star LL Ori and gas evaporating from the vast Orion Nebula (if you hold out your hand at arms length against the night sky, that's a pretty good approximation of the subjective extent of that complex from our point of view) create a shock wave at their boundary, anologous to a 3D version of the wave formed at the bow of boat when it moves independently of the current.

Friday Galactic Blogging

2008-04-11T09:35:00.005-04:00

It looks like a Barred Spiral here. The Large Magellanic Cloud is classified an Irregular, but on longer exposures, such as this deep field exposure from APOD, its structure begins to seem a bit more ordered, as if it was once clearly a barred spiral, but its gravitational interaction with the Milky Way and the Small Magellanic Cloud has distorted that prior configuration.

Click through for the APOD page, click on the image there to see the Hi-res view.

Him Funny!

2008-04-09T17:21:00.002-04:00

James Wolcott sums up Michelle Obama's political liabilities succinctly:

I'm afraid Michelle Obama doesn't get it. Auditioning for the role of First Lady of this great, godawful land, her task is to beam at her husband as if every day was the first page of a lifelong adventure novel unfolding like a succession of blue skies (with a few storm clouds around to build character through adversity), nod with agreement at each sage talking point, applaud metronomically at conclusion of said point, and then wave a big buh-bye to the crowd as if victorious confetti were falling.

That's how it's always been done and breaking with tradition now risks frightening punditry's pale males with retractable penises who are intimidated by strong black women such as Michelle Obama, Oprah, Aretha Franklin, Toni Morrison, and, of course, Kathy Griffin.

He goes on helpfully, providing guidance through the complexities of McCainian language and usage.

Hate Spewing Crypto-Racist...

2008-04-09T10:18:00.008-04:00

...Michelle Malkin reliably promotes a gob-smackingly irrelevant solution to the problem of gang violence.

Any guesses?

Rescind L.A.'s sanctuary law! (Known as Special Order 40.) Got that? Since there are illegals in street gangs, more immigration enforcement will fix the problem. Heather Mac Donald concurs, unsuprisingly. I'm not calling MacDonald a racist, because she's not. Malkin, on the other hand, famously authored a tome (I neither name it nor link to it) favoring the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, with the clear implication that that would be the best strategy for dealing with Muslims in America, post 9/11. She's now been on an anti-immigrant crusade for a couple of years, blaming just about every problem she can name on the easiest targets she can find. What a charming lady. Here's a recurring motif of the pot calling the kettle... oh, never mind.

Mahavishnu Orchestra

2008-04-08T21:23:00.005-04:00

Before jazz-fusion got to be dull and kind of snottily about how good you could play, but not about whether you could write - these guys were shredding eardrums and exhibiting astounding musicianship while simultaneously playing dynamic, compellingly listenable material. "John Mclaughlin" used to be synonymous with "guitar virtuoso," and Billy Cobham is a percussion god. Just one generation removed from Miles Davis' 1960's experiments in combining jazz and rock, this is about as good as this particular genre gets.

Identifying the Non-Trollop Vote

2008-04-07T23:58:00.003-04:00

Sometimes doing the oppo research is almost too easy.

H/T The G-Spot.

More Power Line

2008-04-07T00:17:00.004-04:00

While I'm complaining about Power Line, maybe conservatives could stop making weirdly false assertions about Democrats:

Current Democratic Party dogma holds that international trade is bad; or, at least, imports are bad.

Come on. At least try to approximate a plausible account of what a Democrat might believe. Sheesh.

NYT, Hotbed of Anti-Semitism

2008-04-06T22:36:00.006-04:00

How is it "censorship" when an a company turns down one ad, but just business as usual when the same thing happens to another ad? Ads get rejected every single day, asserting censorship and implying that the unstated reasons are related to a judgment about "the Jewish Lobby" is not particularly convincing. It just depends on whose ox has been gored. Scott Johnson:

David Harris is the executive director of the American Jewish Committee. He has posted an interesting account of the censorship of the AJC's weekly radio ad by the New York Times-owned radio station WQXR

Mickey's Mouth (As It Were)

2008-04-06T16:45:00.007-04:00

Kevin Drum asks:

are we just making up special rules for the Clintons?

Of course we are. The context doesn't even seem to matter. In this case it's Mickey Kaus asking rhetorical questions about the Clintons' finances. Mickey - I feel entitled to refer to him on a first name basis, as a long-time fan of bloggingheads.tv - asks, in part:

The press is focused on where all that money ($109 million) came from. Fair enough. But where did it all go? This seems like a genuine mystery.

except, as Drum points out:

Hillary already has to file an annual financial disclosure form with the Senate, and the 2006 form shows that the bulk of the Clinton family fortune is invested in Citibank deposit accounts and a qualified blind trust. The 2007 form will be disclosed in a couple of months. What more is there to know?

there is no mystery! It's been open season on the Clintons for a long time now. Some conservatives demonstrate absolutely no restraint in posing bad faith innuendo, or even making simple, evidence free accusations. (Why hasn't Hillary ever been arrested for Vince Foster's murder?) Mickey's a smart guy with actual journalistic credentials, you can sure if he really wanted an answer to that question he could have found it as easily as Drum.

Trace Elements

2008-04-05T13:04:00.004-04:00

Ok, I'm no sartorial god. But between the accessory choices and the topic - plus the fact that I haven't added any content referential to Pharyngula in what seems like days - I couldn't not share this video. It doesn't hurt that it's really funny. Also, this seems like a pretty cool site.

Heh

2008-04-05T10:03:00.003-04:00

bjkeefe encapsulates the Malkin Experience.

I have a feeling that even my clever headline won't rate me an Instapundit link.

If You Read My Blog...

2008-04-05T03:00:00.006-04:00

... then there's a good chance you'll enjoy The G Spot. I first saw her via a link in an Ezra Klein post and she guest blogged for him a while back. It's smart, somewhat wry, and plain good writing. Recommended.

I found the "Backwards Bush" widget at her blog.

LGF, Best Friend of Tyrants

2008-04-05T02:40:00.009-04:00

Say what you like about Charles Johnson, he's not a stupid man. What I utterly don't understand about him, and many other conservatives, is their apparent indifference to tyranny and their disdain for those, like the ACLU who try to stand between us and the creep of tyranny into our lives. Is it so hard to understand that guarantees of due process affect more than just the few people who might be denied it if nobody steps up?

And what can possibly be said about this dumbass? (Or, apparently, organized group of dumbasses.)

Eponym

When it Rains... (Václav Havel is gone)

I'm Tempted to Quote Dylan Thomas...

Give Pizza a Chance!

Fantastic Four

Silly Me...

What? Was that a little too "Free Jazz" for ya?

I guess I'm a...

The Limits of Discourse

No Comment

Seriously Perfesser?

Inappropriate Rubbing?

We Are Amused

How long before we start hearing people screaming "Censorship!"?

Batshit Wins!

So the idea here is...

Cool New Blog

Malkin Seems to Lack a Sense of Irony

Lead Story

How to spot and tag a Tea Party infiltrator

Beckbaggers

216!

Teabaggers on Healthcare: the apologist

Teabaggers on Healthcare

Dagmar Krause Sings Surabaya Johnny

Breasts!

Happy Trane Day!

The Origin of Stupidity

Saturnebula!

Missile Defense: It Doesn't Work

Irreducibly Complex Edition (John McWhorter & Michael Behe)

J. G. Ballard

Saturnebula!

Saturnebula!

Saturnebula!

More Kew. Rhone.

Kew. Rhone.

Things I Think Are Beautiful

Limbaugh v. Obama

Saturnebula!

Merry Christmas (and goodbye Eartha Kitt)

Saturnebula!

Saturnebula!

Disappointing

Operation Paranoia

Historic

Saturnebula!

The Obamaclypse Is Upon Us!

Mark Steyn Continues...

Stupid Corner Tricks

While I'm at it...

Red State of Mind

Shorter McCain Surrogates on Ayers

Friday Galactic Blogging

LHC First Light

Isaac Hayes

Ok, just for contrast

Sorry Elvis...

Not Every Violation of the Law Is a Crime!

While I'm Complaining about McCarthy

Friday Galactic Blogging

Hamdan and McCarthy

More Pandering Content

Young Tom Waits

Friday Galactic Blogging

Queen of Outrage

Friday Galactic Blogging

Friday Galactic Blogging

Friday Galactic Blogging

Rest In Hell

Friday Galactic Blogging

It Probably Oughtn't Be Called Rock Music

Friday Galactic Blogging

More What's Wrong With Texas

Friday Galactic Blogging

What Is Wrong With Texas?

No Doomsday in 2012

Huckabee Seems Like a Decent Guy

Friday Galactic Blogging

Spackerman Gets It Right