MICKEY KAUS has further thoughts on the New Jersey gay marriage decision.
Archive for 2006
October 26, 2006
MUCH MORE ON VOTER FRAUD IN MISSOURI, which is beginning to get national attention.
JOSH MANCHESTER looks at ten kilotons and the port of Long Beach.
(Via Austin Bay).
RAPED? According to this imam, it’s all your fault.
WHO’S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE? A poll at AbovetheLaw.
MAJOR JOHN TAMMES has posted his roundup of news from Afghanistan a day early.
HOWARD MORTMAN: “Forget everything you were taught about natural law and the time-space continuum. Is it – shudder — possible for someone named Biden to lose in Delaware?”
MORE ON BILL MOYERS: Rick Byrne of Public Affairs Television sends a letter from Bill Moyers on the Beisner matter, which I had previously mentioned in connection with Bill Moyers’ legal threats against a blogger. Click “read more” for Moyers’ letter. I’ll just note that getting your story out this way is a lot smarter than trying to intimidate bloggers with legal threats, as Moyers has already done. Still, we want to reward people for learning . . . .
And checking the threatened blogger’s site for updates I found this.
“SMELLS LIKE . . . victory!”
MORE ON BILL HASLAM, Mike Bloomberg, and gun control.
MICHAEL BAR0NE: Gutenberg is dead.
But as a wise woman once said: “The Colonel is dead, and here we are still enjoying his chicken.” Extra points if you can spot the source.
UPDATE: A bunch of readers got this right away (I suspect them of Googling, though that’s bad form on questions like this). But reader Tim Tighe was first. It’s from this classic motion picture. Beauty, eh?
THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES: And here I thought that was just a joke — but no!
Siberian scientists believe that addiction to alcohol and narcotics, as well as depression, suicidal thoughts and psychosomatic diseases occur when an individual loses his or her interest in life. The absence of the will to live is caused with decreasing production of endorphins – the substance, which is known as the hormone of happiness. If a depressed individual receives a physical punishment, whipping that is, it will stir up endorphin receptors, activate the “production of happiness” and eventually remove depressive feelings.
Russian scientists recommend the following course of the whipping therapy: 30 sessions of 60 whips on the buttocks in every procedure. A group of drug addicts volunteered to test the new method of treatment: the results can be described as good and excellent.
Or maybe they just pretend to feel better so the damn whippings will stop . . . .
IN THE MAIL: Thomas Homer-Dixon’s book on disasters and preparedness from a lefty perspective, The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization.
The book draws heavily on Tainter’s The Collapse of Complex Societies, which is a terrific book — though I recall reading it a few years ago and concluding that Tainter’s lessons didn’t suggest that our society was in particularly great danger. Homer-Dixon feels otherwise. There’s also a troubling reference to Stalin-apologist Eric Hobsbawm merely as an “eminent historian” — talk about a guy who can argue for “the upside of down,” — but overall I think the book’s pretty interesting. It’s certainly an example of the phenomenon I described in my column:
As with some of the righty books from the 1990s, there’s a curious push-pull here: Though these are warnings of catastrophes to come, there’s a sense that to some extent those catastrophes involve society getting what it deserves for its sinful ways, perhaps coupled with an opportunity for purification in the wake of the crisis — with the virtuously prepared having the upper hand, of course.
Worth reading, if this stuff interests you.
KIMBERLY STRASSEL looks at the Ford/Corker race: “The Democratic Party has been aware of its weaknesses on social issues and national defense for years, but with Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi in charge, it has refused to budge from a liberal stance that resonates mainly in New York and California. Mr. Ford has shown that voters elsewhere will respond to Democrats who aren’t afraid to really talk with them–and vote with them–on God and guns.”
SayUncle has related thoughts.
NEAL BOORTZ tells how you can help some Marines in Iraq have a Merry Christmas.
ANN ALTHOUSE: “Going to New Jersey to get married sounds like the least cutting-edge thing in the world to do, doesn’t it? But throw in the gay and nothing’s boring.”
THE SECURE FENCE ACT has been signed by the President.
THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM is that the New Jersey gay marriage decision is good for the Republicans. But the futures markets don’t show a lot of movement. What do you think? It’s time for another InstaPundit reader poll:
Mark Warner looked to be the strongest Democratic contender for President in 2008 except for Hillary Clinton. We’d been slated to interview him when he decided not to run, but we thought that decision was interesting enough in its own right to justify an interview. We talk to Warner about his choice to bow out, about the state of politics today, and about what he’ll do next. We also discuss anti-terrorism, the Democrats’ problems with flyover country, and the importance of alternative energy, including nuclear power, to address oil pressure and greenhouse emissions. Plus, an interruption by Jimmy Carter!
You can listen to the show directly — no downloading needed — by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download it directly by clicking right here, and you can get a lo-fi version for dialup by clicking here and selecting lo-fi. Better still, you can subscribe via iTunes and get future episodes automatically.
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Music is by Mobius Dick.
MORE RIOTING IN FRANCE: Gateway Pundit has a roundup, and there’s more at No Pasaran! “The most spectacular incident took place at 1AM between Bagnolet and Montreuil. A gang of 10 pistol wielding hooded youths boarded the bus. One of the assailants placed his gun on the side of the bus driver’s head and ordered him to get out of his seat. The gang commandeered the bus, drove it a short distance and torched it in an neighboring suburb.”
MARY KATHARINE HAM posts a special Halloween edition of Ham Nation. She was born to videoblog!
PRACTICING FOR A PANDEMIC in Virginia:
The exercise was part of a two-day, statewide public-health drill. Called Fluex 06, the drill assumed that a pandemic flu, or a strain for which the public has little protection, was moving through the state.
Local hospitals were full and medical supplies were running low, according to the simulation. State officials declared a mock emergency and ordered the vaccination of as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
In the Fredericksburg area, health officials participated in the exercise by scheduling a real-life, drive-through flu clinic. Those interested were told to roll down their car windows and roll up their sleeves for a free shot. The state Health Department supplied 400 doses of flu vaccine.
Officials chose the Stafford center for its large parking lot. The Stafford Volunteer Rescue Squad offered one of its bays, and the Stafford Sheriff’s Office supplied four officers to help with traffic.
The response surprised just about everyone.
Nice to see that they’re preparing.
JUST HEARD HAROLD FORD on the radio with local talk-king Hallerin Hill. Ford was defending his “temperament,” which suggests to me that the Corker-confrontation must have hurt them.
On the other hand, when Hill asked him about his girlfriend, Ford quipped, “I don’t email little boys.” So much for Kaus’s theory that the Foley scandal isn’t hurting Republicans any more.
RALPH KINNEY BENNETT: “Sometime this week, probably Friday, the last Ford Taurus will be built at the Ford Motor Co.’s Hapeville, Ga., assembly plant.”
He has some thoughts on what the Taurus’s demise — or abandonment — means for Ford and the American car industry.
OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM at work.