INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS in Lebanon.

I THINK THE ANSWER is “fairly typical.”

TOM MAGUIRE suggests that Maureen Dowd needs to hire a good blogger.

THE MANOLO TAKES ON the Castro. Heh.

UPDATE: I don’t know what The Manolo would say about these shoes. Well, actually, I think I do. . . .

THIS is mostly an example of why finding “links” between people and organizations is an overrated activity.

UPDATE: Okay, well, this makes it pretty funny.

A WHILE BACK, I linked to Megan McArdle’s pooh-poohing of the Media Matters claim that Brit Hume misrepresented FDR’s statements on social security. Now Al Franken is charged with misquoting Hume.

UPDATE: Kevin Drum says no.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Nick Schulz weighs in:

Lastly, rather than being an attack on the New Deal — “destroy”ing FDR’s America, as Krugman alleged — the kinds of changes initiated by the Bush administration can just as easily be considered an expansion of the welfare state. Up until now, the welfare state has given Americans only income support. Bush’s proposal would have it give Americans the opportunity to accumulate wealth, as well. But it is an expansion of the welfare state that reduces the public’s dependence on the state — which may be why some of FDR’s self-styled heirs hate it so.

Of course, none of this would be an issue with my proposal for Social Security reform.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Matthew Henken is excessively optimistic about the state of our political discourse: “My first thought on reading your headline was, ‘Al Franken was quoting David Hume?'”

MORE: Steve Verdon has a request for Al Franken.

LIFE ON MARS: Phil Bowermaster wonders why this story isn’t getting more attention:

A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water. . . .

What Stoker and Lemke have found, according to several attendees of the private meeting, is not direct proof of life on Mars, but methane signatures and other signs of possible biological activity remarkably similar to those recently discovered in caves here on Earth.

If it’s not green-skinned alien babes — preferably with White House press passes — the Big Media folks probably don’t care much. Still, as Phil observes: “If, like me, you suspect that there is probably life elsewhere in the universe, what does it say about how abundant life may be if we just happen to find some on, oh, you know…the next planet over? ”

On the other hand, as this report from Jules Crittenden notes (and as Phil suggests, too) it’s partly a case of caution lest the story not pan out.

GOOD NEWS:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans claiming initial jobless benefits fell unexpectedly by 2,000 last week to the lowest level in more than four years as the U.S. labor market continued to strengthen, a government report showed Thursday.

First-time claims for state unemployment insurance aid dropped for the third consecutive time, to 302,000, in the week ended Feb. 12 from 304,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department said. It said there were no special factors to account for the drop in claims.

Last week’s decline marks the lowest level since October 2000, before the economy tipped into recession.

Sounds good to me, anyway. (Via Ace).

MY SOCIAL SECURITY COLUMN YESTERDAY led a couple of readers to recommend Ray Kurzweil & Terry Grossman’s book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Summed up, Kurzweil suggests that if you do things we know will help you live longer now — chiefly diet and exercise stuff, though I think he gets a bit carried away on supplementation, etc. — you have a chance of lasting long enough to benefit from more significant life-extension technologies in the future.

True enough, at least within limits. It’s hard to see how this could be put to work on a society-wide basis, though. And I’d be against efforts to try, as the health-Nazis are already out of control.

MOLLITER MANUS IMPOSUIT:

WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail. What they were not prepared for was the post-prandial aggression of oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement.

“We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs. Total thugs,” one protester said, rubbing his bruised skull. “I’ve never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view.”

Another said: “I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they were angels compared with this lot.” Behind him, on the balcony of the pub opposite the IPE, a bleary-eyed trader, pint in hand, yelled: “Sod off, Swampy.”

Apparently, they went in without a plan, and found the inhabitants less receptive than they had expected.

UPDATE: Reader J.P. Hrutky likes the “Sod off, swampy” line: “I think that this is a nice neat rally cry. Bumper stickers, anyone?” Heh.

GREYHAWK OF THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE is back from Iraq.

STAY-AT-HOME DAD JAMES LILEKS Fisks the Newsweek story on stay-at-home moms:

When it comes to expectations about gender and roles and accomplishments and the latest theories about childrearing, I have a secret mantra:

I don’t care.

I know, I know. Easy for me to say. But shout it out loud! I DON’T CARE! Feels good, no? Now meet my hero. Don’t miss the last line. They don’t get it. Even if they ordered it and put it on their platinum Amex, they wouldn’t know where to have it delivered.

You know, in retrospect, I wonder if some will think this is somehow anti-women. Can’t help that. But the entire article seems anti-women, to me. I live in a world of moms, and their sense of ingenuity and amusement are a constant source of delight.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: More on the Newsweek article, from a working mom, here.

CANON UPS THE STAKES, and lowers the prices in the Digital SLR competition.

Competition: I love that! More here.

HEH.

NOBODY TELL ATRIOS, but my secret is out. And James Lileks’.

UPDATE: The Insta-Wife’s take: “You look good as a stripper!” Heh. Indeed.

BLOGS AND MEDIA: Elizabeth Spiers has some thoughts inspired by the Popular Mechanics conspiracy-debunking effort.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Hugh Hewitt — who seems determined to instruct the Wall Street Journal folks in the error of their ways — and from Peggy Noonan (no party-line approach at the WSJ!) as well:

“Salivating morons.” “Scalp hunters.” “Moon howlers.” “Trophy hunters.” “Sons of Sen. McCarthy.” “Rabid.” “Blogswarm.” “These pseudo-journalist lynch mob people.”

This is excellent invective. It must come from bloggers. But wait, it was the mainstream media and their maidservants in the elite journalism reviews, and they were talking about bloggers!

Those MSMers have gone wild, I tell you! The tendentious language, the low insults. It’s the Wild Wild West out there. We may have to consider legislation.

When you hear name-calling like what we’ve been hearing from the elite media this week, you know someone must be doing something right. The hysterical edge makes you wonder if writers for newspapers and magazines and professors in J-schools don’t have a serious case of freedom envy.

Heh. Read the whole thing.

ED CONE says that the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is in a state of sad decline.

“ONCE I WENT INTO MY PAJAMAS I felt a strange motivation for writing:” Iraqi blogger Omar proves that the magical power of sleepwear to promote blogging crosses national boundaries . . . .

IT’S SUSAN ESTRICH VS. MICHAEL KINSLEY in the Washington Examiner. And both Cathy Seipp and Charlotte Allen have related thoughts.

UPDATE: Here’s the full-length text of Estrich’s letter.

BILL HOBBS ANALYZES TRAFFIC and observes:

For another, it means that the mainstream media would be wise to cultivate relationships with bloggers, rather than attack them. MSM newspapers should encourage bloggers to link to stories, and teevee news stations should make their stories and video packages easily linkable.

Yes.

UPDATE: Michael Silence says that Bill is comparing apples and oranges. That’s right (and he’s using Alexa rankings, which I regard as somewhat dubious). But I think his bottom-line point still holds, and in fact I think Michael agrees with that, too.

Meanwhile, it’s worth reading these observations by Stephen Green.

LIFE ON MARS: Some further thoughts over at GlennReynolds.com.

WHY THE TORTURE ISSUE HASN’T RESONATED:

But it isn’t just administration secrecy that explains why Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo haven’t helped the Democrats politically. Some Democrats say torture may in some cases be necessary, although no Democrat has claimed that the depravity in the Abu Ghraib photos was one of those cases.

Last June, in the immediate aftermath of the Abu Ghraib revelations, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a hearing of the Judiciary Committee, “If we knew that there was a nuclear bomb hidden in an American city and we believed that some kind of torture, fairly severe maybe, would give us a chance of finding that bomb before it went off, my guess is most Americans and most senators, maybe all, would say, ‘Do what you have to do.’”

Schumer added, “It’s easy to sit back in the armchair and say that torture can never be used. But when you’re in the foxhole, it’s a very different deal.”

Yeah, when you’re to the left of Charles Schumer and Oliver Willis on the torture issue, you’re, well . . . aligned with me. And that’s not going to get you anywhere politically.

BE VERY AFRAID: Jerry Brown is blogging. I think he’ll turn out to be well-suited to the medium.

(Via Doc Searls).

ANN ALTHOUSE:

I must say I find it utterly repugnant for a political figure to make a big public show of upgrading his marriage to a “covenant marriage.” I don’t particularly approve of the trend of private celebrations that involve some married couple renewing their wedding vows. (What are you saying about vows if you have to renew a vow?) But for a state governor to participate in a spectacle like this, thrusting his private life into a gigantic rally, is just appalling. . . . How utterly unromantic and tasteless! And what a ridiculous notion of the role of government in the lives of individuals!

Indeed.

UPDATE: John Scalzi has further thoughts.

A “FAKE BLOG” from the Associated Press? Ouch:

AP have obviously and spectacularly failed to understand what ‘syndication’ means in the blog sense or what a blog actually is. And what’s worse, the entries I’ve read so far are just not very good. Whilst it’s true that I have read drivel less interesting in my years as a blogger, this poor copy of Wonkette is written by someone who is supposedly a professional writer and it really should be better.

It’s not as easy as it looks . . . . (Via Wizbang).