NOT WORTHY: “Thus describes the incredibly unctuous hosts of two of cable’s lowest-rated shows trying to finagle their way into Tim Russert’s chair on Meet the Press.”
Archive for 2008
June 20, 2008
COOL: Ice on Mars:
After a decade of shouting, “Follow the water!†in its exploration of Mars, NASA can finally say that one of its spacecraft has reached out, touched water ice and scooped it up.
Best case: Water, but no life.
AUSTIN BAY on Obama’s retreat from retreat. Plus, who “the real rubes in this election” will turn out to be . . . .
FIGHTING GLOBAL WARMING with nice, clean nuclear power.
HEIGHTENING THE CONTRADICTIONS: “But there is a serious point to be made here, which is that it’s very interesting to observe the contradictions among liberals between their desire for progressive taxation and their advocacy for higher gasoline taxes.”
IT’S MORE A FETISH THAN A SUPERSTITION, REALLY:
The Tuskegee outrage was real. But the notion that the Tuskegee experiment–which began in the Jim Crow era (1932) and ended in 1972, eight years after the Civil Rights Act became law–reflects the attitudes of American governmental and medical institutions today is an urban legend, a superstition–and potentially a deadly one.
The Times’s account suggests that girls in Chicago were denied potentially lifesaving vaccinations because Michelle Obama pandered to racial paranoia instead of standing up for the truth. Is that why they pay her the big bucks?
Don’t be silly. They pay her the big bucks because she’s married to a Senator.
June 19, 2008
IS WIND-POWER NIMBYISM OVER? “There are already more than 20 offshore wind farms producing electricity in Europe but, in this country, such proposals have sparked opposition from the Great Lakes states to Long Island. Opponents, including seafront homeowners, say such installations would threaten avian and aquatic life and ruin scenic vistas. With such environmental concerns pitted against the demand for clean energy, there is not a single offshore turbine anywhere in the United States. But with energy prices soaring and climate concerns on the rise, the days of such stalemates may be numbered.”
OKAY, THIS IS JUST WRONG: “By the end of the month, White Lily Flour, for more than 100 years a staple for biscuits, cakes and pies, will no longer be made in the South.”
STILL MORE ON CANADA’S “HUMAN RIGHTS” KANGAROO COURTS:
Compare that to what could happen if a human rights tribunal decides against Maclean’s: It could order the private magazine to publish material and images against its editors’ wishes. Let me repeat that: The state will order Maclean’s to publish something it does not want to publish. Isn’t that what China does? So why don’t ear-to-the-ground, free speech-loving Canadian artists denounce it?
Read the whole thing.
JAY LENO on magnificent obsessions.
JACK LAIL: “The most ironic angle to surface so far in the AP vs Drudge Retort copyright/fair use flap is the suggestion of an ethical lapse in the New York Times’ coverage of the tempest by failing to disclose it is among the ‘owners’ of the news service. Which leads me to a question: Who forgot newspaper media companies were the owners of the Associated Press first? The AP or the newspapers?”
MICHAEL TOTTEN REVIEWS Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. “After Hollywood’s recent spate of dour axe-grinding films about Iraq, a fun movie featuring an Israeli counter-terrorist as the protagonist is a refreshing change, even if it is no more serious or realistic than a cartoon.”
A LOOK AT THE SCIENCE OF PRESSURE COOKERS.
Earlier pressure cooker blogging can be found here. I continue to like mine; the Insta-Daughter is particularly fond of pot roast done this way.
LASHAWN BARBER ON Christian bands and their groupies.
THE S.U.V. IS DEAD: Long Live the S.U.V.? “The future still holds the promise that the once-great SUV will again rise to prominence, at least if we’re willing to believe the concepts we’ve seen out of the automakers’ design studios.”
“SUPREME HUMAN DIGNITY.” A quiz.
A CALL FOR HEARINGS AND INVESTIGATION on the Milberg, Weiss scandal. “What assurance is there that the bribery, obstruction of justice and fraud exposed by the Milberg Weiss scandal are not the rule, rather than the exception, in class-action securities litigation? After all, former Milberg Weiss partner William Lerach insists that he is in federal prison for doing what was ‘industry practice.'”
THINGS I NEVER KNEW I NEEDED: A neoprene ice cream sleeve. With and without a zipper.
They used to say that it was a man’s world, but you don’t hear that much any more. Women outnumber men in college, get preferential legal treatment in many areas, and in general seem to be doing better, while boys lag girls in education and men generally seem to be doing worse. Should anyone care?
Yes, says Kathleen Parker in her new book, Save the Males: Why Men Matter Why Women Should Care. We talk with her about what’s going on, why the condition of men matters to women, and why many men are afraid to speak out. Plus, Barack Obama on fatherhood.
You can listen directly — no downloads needed — by going here and selecting the gray Flash player. You can download the file and listen at your leisure by clicking right here. And you can always get a free subscription via iTunes — and why not, really?
Music is by The Mr. T. Experience. Show archives are at GlennandHelenShow.com.
MORE LIES ABOUT MCCAIN AND IRAQ FACT-CHECKED. Okay, actually it’s just the same old lie, repeated again.
SUBPRIME SIX UPDATE: A massive sweetheart deal for the mortgage industry, sponsored by a “friend of Angelo.” If you put this in a novel, people would call it heavy-handed.
UPDATE: The view from Chris Dodd’s home state. “He says he thought the VIP treatment he got from Countrywide Financial was just because he was a good customer, and not because he was a United States Senator who chairs the senate banking committee. It appears some people in Connecticut are having a hard time buying that.” Video at the link.
CORRECTING BARACK OBAMA’S RHETORIC: “Tricky rhetoric. We are having an argument about what American jurisprudence dictates. It’s a difficult question, and the people who disagree with Obama — such as the dissenters in Boumediene — don’t favor throwing out ‘American jurisprudence.’ . . . He is defining and balancing these things differently from the way they do, and I wish he’d be more precise about what his plan is rather than simply asserting that he will be able to harmonize competing interests so that everything works out just fine.”
OFFSHORE DRILLING AND THE ENVIRONMENT:
Mr. Maass decried the environmental and social messes that have resulted in other parts of the world as oil companies drilled elsewhere — from the Amazon to Africa — when the American public turned against drilling here after a spill off the coast of California.
Outsourcing drilling doesn’t lead to more environmental protection, but to less. Related thoughts from John Tierney.
TIM LYNCH ON John Yoo and Boumediene.
A THIRD CLINTON TERM? With everybody but Bill and Hillary!