If it's slithery and repulsive, it's probably a …

… Newt.

This just in:

From: JoshuaE
Subject: Topic for your blog

What do you think of Gingrich's recent comment:

"We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto," Gingrich said to cheers from the crowd of more than 100.

[source]

Personally, I find the most telling "word" in this paragraph is "100".

How am I supposed to write a thoughtful essay examining the pros and cons of English as official language after that last line?

.xxx nixed

Looks like the .xxx TLD (top level domain), which had been proposed for porn sites, will not happen. I remember when this idea was first proposed, and I was actually surprised to learn that it hadn't gone away, but it seems that the decision is now final. This makes me mildly irritated.

The NYT story doesn't report the case against it completely, although the obvious hand-waving explanations are presented: some think it would serve as a magnet for kids, others think it would mean ICANN would be expanding into the regulation/censorship business, rather than just assigning domain names, and like that. Other stories don't seem to add much, although one of them suggests an additional argument against: that many porn-site operators themselves were against it, fearing being "ghettoized." (I have also heard, although didn't see mentioned today, that many established porn sites have recently turned against the idea, claiming they had invested too much time and money and building a "brand identity." Think WhiteHouse.com, I guess.)

When I first heard about this idea, it seemed less complicated. Many site operators were quoted as being in favor of the idea, especially on a voluntary basis, indicating that they were trying to be responsible about regulating site traffic. It would be brain-dead easy to configure a computer and/or browser to refuse to open any pages on a .xxx site, which would cut down on their problems with screening underage visitors. This story gives credence to this thinking; according to the group lobbying for the .xxx TLD: "ICM cited preregistrations of more than 76,000 names as evidence of support."

I have to say that I don't really have a problem with people looking at pictures of whatever gets their freak on, provided the models are willing adults. It's not for me, or anyone else, to decide for others what is "worthwhile" or "appropriate." To go a little hyperbolic, recall that we used to have an Attorney General who once spent $8000 to drape a statue, fearing his erection a bare marble breast would mess up his photo ops.

I also don't really have a problem with porn sites being lumped into a category that makes it easy to block them en masse. We seem to tolerate zoning laws that prevent brick and mortar porn outlets from opening next to elementary schools, for example.

Sure, a .xxx TLD wouldn't solve all problems. I think making it mandatory would be impossible, and would be fraught with real censorship issues. And if implemented as voluntary, the obvious next step is to wonder what would be done about all of the sites that didn't make the switch.

Too many people seem bent on requiring The Law to protect The Children these days, and are too lazy to take personal responsibility. Too many others have appointed themselves gatekeepers of taste. But my real problem with the anti-.xxx decision is that I think we're in an age where no one is interested in partial solutions. If something is not a magic bullet, it's too easy to dismiss it out of hand. Would creating a .xxx TLD have evermore prevented children from looking at bare naked bodies? Obviously not. But I thought setting up a voluntary .xxx TLD would have been a step in a good direction, and it's hard to see how it would have hurt.

---

WebProNews has a story that describes in more detail the arguments offered by the ICANN board members dissenting from the majority decision.

BBS News, which bills itself as "Your true conservative news source," has a pretty good commentary on the matter, and I don't just say that because they agree with me on this issue.

Mastering Image Search

Have a look at Red State Son's post titled "Think In Your Mind."

Masterful, I call it.

Naked Chocolate Jesus

Regarding the decision of the Roger Smith Hotel to cancel the exhibition of Cosimo Cavallaro's sculpture, in response to pressure from the usual wingnuts, I have only one thing to say.

Weenies.

Update

2007-04-01 13:34 EDT

Beats me: Clif over at Outside the Tent titles his thoughts about the noise created by Catholic League president Bill Donohue as "Willy Wanker and the Chocolate Flappery."

I bow down.

Cable TV Goes Blank?

One good thing about the insanely long presidential campaign "season" in this country is that reporters are pushed to new limits of creativity to find something to say about the "race."

Take this WaPo story: "Fred Thompson's Presidential Hopes Could Put 'Law' Reruns in Lockup."

That's right. If the guy who's not a D.A. but plays one on TV goes much further, then due to considerations of equal time on the airwaves (even if they're not really the airwaves anymore), no more Law & Order reruns for you.

Which, I have to say, is almost enough to make me contribute to his campaign.

---

(Hat tip, for the link, to Andy Bowers, who in the same story has posted a fake campaign ad for Thompson that he made. This "ad" is preceded by a real ad -- meta madness! -- but it's pretty funny.)

---

Update

2007-03-30 17:17 EDT

See Mere Rhetoric for another funny post on Thompson.

Further Proof

… that George W. Bush is not, was not, and has never been a sissy, is offered by this teaser from today's NYT e-front page:

Pom-Poms, Pyramids and Peril

Cheerleaders suffer more catastrophic injuries than athletes in all other sports combined.

NYT-picking: The Search for a New Public Editor

According to Jack Shafer's Press Box column on Slate, the NY Times will be hiring a new Public Editor when Byron Calame steps down in April. (His source was Women's Wear Daily. Who knew?)

<aside>

Hey! Maybe my January post to Bill Keller worked! It must have -- he was evidently too shamed ever to reply.

</aside>

But seriously, I'm glad that Keller made the decision to keep the position, and I'm probably with the overwhelming majority when I hope that he'll get someone more like Daniel Okrent, the first PE. Shafer suggests someone under thirty, with not too much newspaper experience, and makes a good case for these suggestions. He also proposes some worthy nominees.

I can't think of any names offhand that compare with Shafer's suggestions, although I will point out that:

• I'm only 26 if you express my age in vigesimal notation; and,
• My gross earnings from newspaper work, deliveries aside, amount to less than $100.

Just When You Thought Republican Lying Couldn't Get Any More Ludicrous

Thanks to Eve Fairbanks, we now have the rare opportunity to watch Tom Delay lie on TV.

Not impressed?

Okay. Here's the rest. He's on Hardball, and he denies having written something. The thing that he said is in the book that he just wrote, that he's there to pimp. Chris Matthews says, "But I underlined it." Delay denies it again. Whereupon Matthews pulls out a copy of the book and reads it. Whereupon Delay still denies it.

Watch the whole clip (less than two minutes), and be very thankful for Ronnie Earle.

---

Oh, and by the way? Just when I thought I couldn't hate Tom Delay any more, he picks a title for his stupid book that comes perilously close to sullying the slogan for one of my all-time favorite movies. (I'll let you have some of my 5 Shit Sandwich points if you can explain my obscurantism.)

Where's The Giant Sucking Sound When You Need It?

I'd be sort of terrified about the inability of the Star Wars people to even run sump pumps, if I weren't convinced that flooding those silos might in fact be the best long-term strategy.

Still, just when North Korea is prepping for an advanced missile launch, you have to at least cringe at stories like this.

Hat tip: Keelin McDonell.

---

Don't remember the phrase giant sucking sound?

Simile of the Day -- 2007-03-29

Summary of a squabble between McCain attacker Giuliani supporter Philip Klein (writing in The American Spectator) and Guliani attacker McCain supporter Ramesh Ponnuru (writing in The National Review):

Like hemophiliacs going at one another with chainsaws, I tell you.

-- Jonathan Chait

And on another post on The Plank, Jason Zengerle delivers the first criticism of Jim Belushi that goes too far. Warning: Do not follow JZ's video link unless you really want to see Karl Rove try to bring teh funny. It's that painful.

Update

2007-04-01 12:18 EDT

The always wonderful Zeitgeist Checklist chimes in:

Watch it [the video] and you'll understand why Jim Webb carries a gun.

Bonus points: The title for this entry is "Glock and Speil."

Krugman Beats Us All. Again.

Both Chris Suellentrop and Matt Yglesias, whom I refer to in earlier posts, have recently mentioned the Shields and Cragan study. Suellentrop, to his credit, also acknowledges that Paul Krugman wrote about it. Three weeks previously.

Money quote from Krugman's 9 March 2007 column:

Donald Shields and John Cragan, two professors of communication, have compiled a database of investigations and/or indictments of candidates and elected officials by U.S. attorneys since the Bush administration came to power. Of the 375 cases they identified, 10 involved independents, 67 involved Republicans, and 298 involved Democrats. The main source of this partisan tilt was a huge disparity in investigations of local politicians, in which Democrats were seven times as likely as Republicans to face Justice Department scrutiny.

How can this have been happening without a national uproar? The authors explain: "We believe that this tremendous disparity is politically motivated and it occurs because the local (non-statewide and non-Congressional) investigations occur under the radar of a diligent national press. Each instance is treated by a local beat reporter as an isolated case that is only of local interest."

The full study is on ePluribus Media.

Hat tips all around. Except to the people who keep Krugman behind the TimesSelect wall. He's worth paying for, which I do, but it would also better serve the public good to make his column freely available.

Now That's Thinking Outside the Box!

An idea positively Rovian in its wicked beauty:

Incidentally, I sort of feel that US liberals should welcome Québec secession. It would create an ideal opportunity for the United States to conquer the maritime provinces and the right would be so blinded by jingoism that they'd fail to notice that they've just created a bunch of new liberal senators.

-- Matthew Yglesias

Thanks (again) for the link, Opinionater.

Pig Pile!

There's an op-ed worth reading in today's LA Times, by Joseph D. Rich. Rich, according to the bio supplied with the article, was "chief of the voting section in the Justice Department's civil right division from 1999 to 2005."

Rich makes the case that the recent news of political maneuvering at the Justice Department is no recent thing, but has been going on for the past six or so years. Of particular note: he describes the complete lack of any JD prosecutions concerning voting rights cases and a push to stomp hard on voter fraud. (Let's play Jeopardy … the correct question is: "What are the two best ways for the Justice Department to suppress minority turnout at the polls?")

I'm a bit cynical about Rich suddenly finding the stones to bring this up now, after having been part of the scenery, if not part of the problem, lo these many years. But, maybe he was trying to do the right thing from within, or maybe he had a change of heart, or maybe he finished paying off his kids' college bills. Or maybe, he's wanted to say this all along, and finally felt that someone besides us terrorist-loving lefty bloggers was ready to hear it. Or maybe, piling on is the only way to fight a colossus like the W administration (used to be?).

Whatever the underlying motivations, there are some worthwhile details. Better late than never, in any case.

Hat tip to Chris Suellentrop, aka the Opinionater, for the link.

Update

2007-03-29 21:10 EDT

More on voter fraud, or more precisely, "The Myth Of Voter Fraud," in the WaPo. Hat tip, Matt Y.

Update

2007-03-30 16:13 EDT

Salon's lead story for today, "Bush's long history of politicizing justice," has more on the dismantling of the DOJ's dismantling of its Civil Rights division, including reference to Joseph Rich's testifying before Congress on the matter.

Comment of the Day -- 2007-03-28

From a blog post asking readers to submit suggestions for the best way to back up a lot of data:

13. My uncle works for NASA. Years ago, he was called in to consult for the government on how to store some important data. Tape drives? CDs? (This was before DVDs.) His response was this: "If you write it on papyrus and lock it in a pyramid, we know it will last a few thousand years. Everything else is just guesswork."

-- David Ely

And speaking of low prices …

(… which we were in the previous post …)

You can now get free TimesSelect access if you have an email address ending in .edu.

That should take the edge off the college tuition bills.

(Details in E&P. Thanks to Mike D, via Mickey K.)

But If You Can't Make It There?

… what about anywhere (else)?

A small beacon of hope and a shoutout to the Big Apple, after reading this lede: "Wal-Mart to New York: fuhgeddaboudit."

(Must be nice to finally be as cool as Inglewood.)

And a shoutout to the NY Times, for this bit of in-line editorializing:

… Wal-Mart, a cost-minded retailer known for its dowdy merchandise …

Woof!

Among the many things that my friend Belinda has taught me over the years is that rescuing greyhounds is a Very Good Thing.

Once, long ago, I'd been to the dog track, didn't much care for it, had a vague sense of unease about how the dogs are slaughtered when they've outlived their professional usefulness, and that's about it.

A decade or so later, I met her new adoptees. I was amazed, right off, to see up close their unworldly built-for-speed look, the raked ears and massive rear thighs, especially. I got a few chances to play with them in their big backyard, and I want to tell you, seeing these things fly by from up close is truly jaw-dropping. But I was most surprised to learn what a gentle nature they have. Ten minutes of furious activity per day seems to be their routine, followed by a bout of ferocious slobbering in the water bowl, followed by two hours of trying to pretend that they are lap dogs.

See a couple of nice paintings of some old west coast friends of mine: Hey, Wanna Split a Sandwich? and Red Carpet Retirement.

Cuddle This

Let's say you were a president with approval ratings in the toilet, casting about for something, ANYTHING, to create an impression that you were actually not completely evil. Hmmm …

Hey, I know! Cute animals! Let's get do some photo ops with cute animals!

Not this president. Instead, plans are ongoing to gut the Endangered Species Act.

From Salon:

In recent months, the Fish and Wildlife Service has gone to extraordinary efforts to keep drafts of regulatory changes from the public. All copies of the working document were given a number corresponding to a person, so that leaked copies could be traced to that individual.

[...]

Many Fish and Wildlife Service employees believe the draft is not based on "defensible science," says a federal employee who asked to remain anonymous. Yet "there is genuine fear of retaliation for communicating that to the media. People are afraid for their jobs."

[...]

Under his reign, the administration has granted 57 species endangered status, the action in each case being prompted by a lawsuit. That's fewer than in any other administration in history -- and far fewer than were listed during the administrations of Reagan (253), Clinton (521) or Bush I (234).

[...]

… during this administration, nearly half of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees who work with endangered species reported that they had been directed by their superiors to ignore scientific evidence that would result in recommendations for the protection of species …

The evil of this administration knows no bounds.

The whole story [S$], however depressing, is worth a read. One problem with the tendency of the news to focus on the scandal du jour is that the ramifications of the core mission of the Bush Administration -- to do whatever the oil, mining, and logging interests want -- often slip under the radar.

And Yet I …

Two from The Department of "I'm Probably the Last Person on the Planet To Have Noticed This, But Here Goes Anyway":

1. If you highlight some text while surfing with Firefox, and then right-click, one of the options on the context menu is "Search <engine> for <text>," where <engine> is whatever search engine you have set in the navigation toolbar, and <text> is whatever text you just highlighted.

How long has this been going on? (In my own defense, I am slavishly devoted to keyboard shortcuts, so it's not like I actually get to see the context menu all that often. In this context.)

2. Do you know The Defective Yeti? Here are a couple of three lines from recent posts …

This game is to free time what whales are to krill. (source)

The 2008 presidential race is as engrossing as "Mile two" of the Boston Marathon. (source)

A Google search indicates that no one has ever formed a heavy metal Christian band called "BC/AD." (source)

… and two quick posts that must be read in their entirety: Fool And His Money and Will Wonders Never Cease?.

Bookmark or subscribe. But keep track of the Yeti.

Not Anonymous Bosh

I have ranted in the past about anonymous posting and how lame I think it is. As with all sweeping generalizations, of course, there are valid exceptions. Here's one: "My National Security Letter Gag Order."

Bear in mind that there have been tens of thousands of these National Security Letters issued in the past three years.

We gave up liberty. Do we feel more secure?

Thanks to Chris Suellentrop for the link.

Soup Ream!

Q: How do a liquid diet and 500 pieces of paper relate to anything topical?
A: Not my job!

You'll have to excuse me. I just having finished today's NYT crossword puzzle.

To clarify: this week's Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me! has Soup Ream Court Justice Stephen Breyer on to play "Not My Job."

I'm not going to say he killed, but when you've got Paula Poundstone asking you questions, it's probably just best to play the straight man. And he did get off a couple of good lines.

Listen to that segment, or the whole show, by visiting this page.

(P.S. If you want to hear a "Not My Job" guest who did kill, check out the Aug 2005 show featuring Barack Obama.)

Another Thought for the Day -- 2007-03-25

… practically everything that our government does, plans, thinks, hears and contemplates in the realms of foreign policy is stamped and treated as secret -- and then unraveled by that same government, by the Congress and by the press in one continuing round of professional and social contacts and cooperative and competitive exchanges of information.

-- Max Frankel

Here, Frankel is quoting a memo that he wrote in 1971, when he was the chief Washington correspondent for the NY TImes, arguing to the NYT's lawyers that they should not knuckle under to the Nixon Administration's request that the NYT halt publication of the Pentagon Papers. His article in today's paper, which recalls that memo, compares those times with the Libby trial, emphasizing the insider politics and leak strategies of all Washington players. Well worth your time.

Thought for the Day -- 2007-03-25

I have always considered it absurd to judge anyone solely on the basis of the police reports and denunciations — to believe that, in a country in which everything was a lie, the security services were the only institution guided by an evangelical respect for the truth.

-- Adam Michnik

Prof. Michnik is talking about Poland here, but it's not much of a stretch to think of the U.S., is it? Especially in light of the USA PATRIOT Act, warrantless wiretapping, "extraordinary rendition," "national security letters," confessions obtained via torture, and stories such as this.

Bald Truth

Here's a budget analysis that you should read.

Well said, Matt Taibbi.

Understatement of the Day: 2007-03-24

I am a tenured faculty member at a large state university. My teaching efforts primarily consist of delivering statistics lectures to social science majors. These experiences have colored my perspective somewhat.

-- the "About" section for the Angry Professor

And don't miss the AP's response to a letter from Admin, which certainly qualifies for an award, too.

Eye Candy for the Day: 2007-03-24

Have a look around the site called dhteumeuleu. The current default that loads on the home page doesn't do much for me, but there's plenty else to see. Try clicking the"random" or "gallery" or "demos" links. Some amazing stuff awaits you. Most of the images react to your mouse movements. You may need to let the pages fully load before they respond properly, but they're not hugely bandwidth-intensive.

Tip: make sure the volume on your computer isn't cranked before visiting. The pages serve up music to accompany the images.

Thanks to Jinnet for for the link.

Retronym and Neologism of the Day -- 2007-03-24

In the same article, no less!

The retronym: artificial artificial intelligence

The neologism: crowdsourcing

I like 'em both, although I'm a bit mystified about why the NYT is treating Amazon's Mechanical Turk as a new thing. It's so 2005.

Upgrade!

It seems that I am close to being able to tell the world that I now drive a Porsche.

Wonder if I can get a new key fob for ostentatious display in the singles bars?

Hand Wringing?

The lede:

A sharp debate within the Bush administration over the future of the Central Intelligence Agency's detention and interrogation program has left the agency without the authority to use harsh interrogation techniques that the White House said last fall were necessary in questioning terrorism suspects, according to administration and Congressional officials.

[...]

Until the debate is resolved, C.I.A. interrogators are authorized to use only interrogation procedures approved by the Pentagon.

My reaction:

You say that like that's a bad thing.

Is it just me, or does the story following the above lede have a tone worrying that we don't have enough legal ways to torture people?

Line of the Day -- 2007-03-22

Despite my personal regret at having to set aside yet another attempt to protect our children from harmful material, perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection.

-- Lowell A. Reed Jr., Senior Judge of Federal District Court, in his ruling striking down a 1998 Internet pornography law (source)