(Updated below)
If Paul Davies's op-ed in Saturday's NYT irritated you as much as it did me, you might like PZ Myers's rebuttal.
Update
2007-11-26 20:23
Doghouse Riley starts with the same annoyance, but quickly expands his curmudgeonliness. As usual, brilliantly.
In a brief piece reporting Trent Lott's planned resignation from the Senate, Adam Nossiter and David M. Herszenhorn saw fit to include this paragraph:
By resigning before the end of the year, Mr. Lott would beat the effective date for new ethics rules that double to two years the amount of time former Senators must wait before they can join a firm to lobby former colleagues. The new rule applies to those who leave office "on or after" Dec. 31.
I'm sure rightwingers who read the NYT just to complain about it will have plenty to say about this, but I think it merited inclusion.
I had a little more trouble with the lede:
Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was forced to step down as majority leader in 2002 after making a remark that seemed to support segregation, announced today that he will resign by the end of the year.
This is something important in Lott's career, and deserved mention, but I wouldn't have put it in the first sentence. I would have started with something like "Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, former Majority Leader and current second-ranking Republican, announced …" and reviewed later in the article why he lost the Majority Leader slot.
In defense of Nossiter and Herszenhorn, there was no speculation about the expected massive slump in sales of men's hair spray in the D.C. area.
(photo credit: Alex Brandon/Associated Press, my crop)
Dateline: OK!
For many, the resignation of Oral Roberts University's embattled president, Richard Roberts, seemed to be a question of when, not if, amid the financial scandal that hit the school nearly two months ago.
Roberts, facing accusations in the lawsuit that he misspent school funds to support a lavish lifestyle, resigned Friday.
[...]
The recent lawsuit, filed Oct. 2, includes allegations of a $39,000 shopping tab at one store for Richard Roberts' wife, Lindsay, a $29,411 Bahamas senior trip on the university jet for one of Roberts' daughters, and a stable of horses for the Roberts children.
The professors also alleged that Richard Roberts required students in a government class to work on 2006 Tulsa mayoral candidate Randi Miller's campaign.
Yes, that's Oral Roberts's kid. No, we are not suprised. Yes, we are amused.
(h/t: Roger Ailes)
Looking at the comments under the recent geography quiz, I retract the blame I assigned to my mouse. I'm impressed, y'all. And embarrassed.
Continuing in the self-flagellation mode, I guess there's no sense keeping this a secret any longer:
I've been telling myself that this result was a compliment to the clarity of my prose, but that's seeming less plausible. Ten years of college, wasted.
In my own defense, Althouse rates at the junior high school level.
(h/t for the scoring link: Crankyprof)
My favorite way to say I told you so, up until five minutes ago, was the old bumper sticker: "Don't Blame Me. I'm From Massachusetts." Here's my new favorite, which Paul Krugman says he has on a T-shirt:
I think the plot title is superfluous, so I edited it out, but if you don't recognize the data, it was "George W. Bush: Approval Ratings."
I just missed getting to level 5 on my first attempt, which I blame mostly on my mouse, and not at all on my vast knowledge.
Thanks, Jinnet. (Who claims to have gotten to level 6, but does not deign to say how many tries it took.)
Too long ago, I was tagged by John. Here are my answers.
4 jobs I have had:
4 movies I love to watch over and over:
4 places I have lived:
4 TV shows I enjoy watching:
4 places I have been:
4 Websites I visit daily:
4 favorite foods:
4 places I’d rather be:
Typically, when one is meme-tagged, one is supposed to tag others. I don't like to impose in this fashion, because as much as I like to get tagged, it turns out most other people don't share my enthusiasm. So, if you'd like to consider yourself tagged, please do so. Add a link in the commments, if you like, and I'll update this post to indicate that I tagged you. (Massive incentive: First four only!) This is kind of like preparing documents for the George W. Bush Presidential Library, I think.
The new poll is up (over there in the sidebar).
Last poll results: The question was: "Stephen Colbert's plan to run for president in South Carolina is:"
The winner, in a landslide, was: "A perfect commentary on the state of presidential campaigns."
Thanks for voting!
Hate the restrictions of multiple-choice questions? Please feel free to expand upon your vote in the Comments.
... I'm not the only one who makes fun of his previous government-funded job. Here's PK, ruminating on the bad old days, same as the bad new days:
And one of my jobs was to go to international meetings, where I helped draw up communiques. These communiques were, by design, bland and uninformative — because consensus, not insight, was the goal, so anything controversial was fuzzed over.
It was, in short, extremely boring: well-dressed important-looking men sitting around tables, saying nothing.
And reading reports on the latest G20 meeting brings it all back:G20 finance ministers and central bankers conceded that the extent of the global economic slowdown following this summer’s turmoil in financial markets is difficult to predict.Profound, isn’t it? Equally exciting:In their communique, the G20 said recent events have ‘emphasised the need for greater effectiveness of financial supervision and the management of financial risks as well as to increase transparency among financial institutions’.And grown men spend their time doing this.
His blog is at least as good as his column. I hope he keeps it up once the book-pimping is done with.
From a good post arguing against Giuliani:
Republican blogs are trying to convince me that Mike Huckabee is surging even though nobody in the country can adequately describe him to a police sketch artist.
- -- Eric Berlin
From the referring post:
I don't know how, in a time when the United States desperately needs unity, we wound up with the nation's two most polarizing figures as front runners in a Presidential election.
But really, all you need for today is one word, from Jon Swift: Thankstaking. Read it and weep. With laughter.
According to Yahoo's version of the AP report, Frances Townsend gave notice earlier today of her plans to resign as Homeland Security Advisor. Part of her resignation letter read:
It is with a profound sense of gratitude that I have decided to take a respite from public service.
I'd be glad to be allowed out of that White House, too, but that's probably not what she meant.
At my old office job, we used to get memos when the latest quarterly reports for the pension plan were available. They always began:
As required by law, I am pleased to notify you that ...
Communications majors, every last one of them, no doubt.
If you're like me, and the bloom has come off the rose a little bit, Andrew Sullivan's article on Barack Obama should help. Even if you're not like me, I encourage you to read it. It's a powerful argument for why Obama is the best choice for president.
Kyklops is hosting a video that I think should be the only campaign commercial the Democrats show for the next year.
Here is a bar chart titled "2007 United States Research and Development Investments in Different Types of Energy Compared to the Cost of the War in Iraq."
You will not believe the amount of scrolling required.
(h/t: Sean)
Here's Utah State Senator Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, speaking in response to a colleague's request that a vote on a bill be delayed until possible unintended consequences were more fully explored:
We get bound up here all the time on "we don't understand this." Well, there's a lot of things we vote on that we don't understand, but I would rather stand on the principle of "let's go for it."
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
(h/t: Clif)
Via Peter Sagal, here's an excerpt from Katie Mingle's acceptance speech at the Seventh Annual Third Coast International Audio Festival Awards:
When I was a kid, I used to listen to public radio when my parents played it, and I'd think, "That's so gay." Now I'm making stuff for public radio, and, I am gay.
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be documentarians.
I know you'll find this hard to believe, but the rightwing blogosphere is just outraged, outraged about bridge players using signs. The noise level leads me to believe that the follow-on story will feature a certain New York real estate magnate suing the players for invoking his name during bidding without paying royalties.
Thank goodness there's a reasonable conservative around when you need one. Jon Swift nails it, once again.
Be sure to note the email response posted as an update. Is it possible that no one on the right knows the meaning of the word satire?
Just got back from the grocery store. Guess who's on the cover of this month's Ebony?
... the Earth apparently orbits the Moon!
Kyklops has a nice video up on his blog: Earthrise and Earthset, as imaged by the high-def camera mounted on JAXA's Kaguya lunar explorer, with a little background music added by some kind YouTuber. Short and sweet.
Kaguya, it seems, is Japanese for Selene. Or maybe, Japanese for Heather Has Two Mommies.
The suspension of disbelief required to support Rudy Giuliani for president is not unlike watching a porn film and thinking, "You know, maybe if I deliver pizza to that hot chick down the street when she didn't order any …"
The above is from the Rude Pundit, so you can probably imagine what happens after the ellipsis. I'm not usually a language prude (I'll cop to language scold); I just think the line is funnier as excerpted.
If you don't mind an excess of Anglo-Saxonisms, the whole thing is worth a read. I also liked the way the RP characterized Giuliani's book: "a literary combover."
You've probably gotten this advice a few times during this millenium:
I finally decided to take them up on it, and found one, right on the Liberals page of Conservapedia. Click to zoom.
I particularly like the frontal lobe labeled "Smarter Than Thou Tumor." Not too hard to tell what the wingnuts are most worried about, is it?
They hate us because they can't understand our jokes.
That is a recent picture of Wayne Rogers, best known for playing Trapper John on the TV version of M*A*S*H.
The picture comes from a "where are they now" thing that Joel said he found "weirdly compelling." For me, not so much. But the picture of Rogers was kind of fun.
Congratulations to Don McArthur for getting it right.
From Manohla Dargis's review of Lions for Lambs:
Mr. Cruise pours on his characteristic intensity and lights up the board with alternating flashes of charm, sincerity, gravity, indignation and outrage. Every mood feels phony, a total put-on …
Ouch!
Maybe not so bad. He is, after all, portraying a U.S. Senator. Here's the rest of that last sentence:
… which works well for a character delivering a self-conscious, constructed performance.
When the "Do Not Call" program started, certain groups were permitted to ignore the restrictions, among them, political advocacy groups.
At the time, this seemed reasonable to me. In fact, it seemed like a good thing. But I now want to propose an additional restriction: automated calls do not qualify for exemption.
I've gotten at least one robo-call every day this week. It would appear that NY Republicans have no other issue to campaign on besides the driver's license nonsense. You want to have a real person call me, fine. But no automated calls.
Place your guesses in the Comments, if you like. If you're sure you know, obfuscate, please. Answers in a few days.
Probably you've seen this. But if not, enjoy. I think the announcers add a lot, which is a uncommon thing these days.
(Updated below)
Doghouse Riley, moved to sentimentalism (not really) over the departure of Karen "Who?" Hughes, looks forward to nostalgia for the Bush Administration's time in office:
... a kitschy, sentimental small-town parade where all the floats are constructed of horseshit, with a couple of local disc jockeys babbling on the PA about how fresh the air seemed that morning.
Read the whole thing.
You might also like the Arab News's take on the resignation. It starts with the headline: "Karen Hughes Resigns After Failing to Improve the US’ Image Abroad," and gets harsher farther down.
Update
2007-11-03 03:23
On The Media has a nice piece on the Hughes resignation, too. Most of it is an interview with Price Floyd, the erstwhile State Department director of media affairs who served under Hughes.
The new poll is up (over there in the sidebar).
Results from the last one: Rudy Giuliani won in a landslide for most creepy Republican candidate. "All are equally creepy" finished second, and Mitt Romney bought himself earned a third-place finish.
Thanks for voting!
Photo credit: AP, part of a good LAT article on the campaign
Hate the restrictions of multiple-choice questions? Please feel free to expand upon your vote in the Comments.
Not a day goes by without something else happening that makes you wonder just what the hell George W. Bush was doing for the half-century before he got into the White House.
Here's today's jaw-dropper, the last sentence from a NYT story describing Bush's attempts to rehabilitate the image of his choice for the next Torturer-General:
Dana M. Perino, the press secretary, said aides to Mr. Bush had been discussing ways to make him more accessible to the press, and settled upon the Oval Office idea after Mr. Bush saw a photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower conducting a news conference there.
No word from the press secretary as to whether Bush actually knew who that old bald guy was. I do have my suspicions he was heard to remark, "The colors seem a little faded in that pitcher."
From David Kirkpatrick's piece in last Sunday's NYT mag:
Today the president's support among evangelicals, still among his most loyal constituents, has crumbled. Once close to 90 percent, the president's approval rating among white evangelicals has fallen to a recent low below 45 percent, according to polls by the Pew Research Center. White evangelicals under 30 -- the future of the church -- were once Bush's biggest fans; now they are less supportive than their elders. And the dissatisfaction extends beyond Bush. For the first time in many years, white evangelical identification with the Republican Party has dipped below 50 percent, with the sharpest falloff again among the young, according to John C. Green, a senior fellow at Pew and an expert on religion and politics.
Welcome to the reality-based community, y'all.
