Archive for 2009
July 15, 2009
I BLAME GLOBAL WARMING. Er, I mean “Climate Change.” Record Low Temperatures Hit Northeast.
July 14, 2009
A BRIGHT NEW ERA OF JOY: Bottled Water Bans and Meat-Free Days.
TEA PARTY UPDATE: Port St. Lucie apologizes to Treasure Coast Tea Party. “After a week of complaints about a sign at Freedomfest on July 4, city officials apologized to the Treasure Coast Tea Party. . . . About 75 members of the anti-tax group attended the City Council’s Monday night meeting looking for an apology. They have said their civil rights were violated when they were singled out at the festival by being put into a special area with a sign nearby stating Port St. Lucie did not back their views or opinions.” The fact that — in keeping with Jim Geraghty’s advice — they showed up en masse at a City Council meeting probably helped.
SOTOMAYOR’S PERFORMANCE GETS A BAD REVIEW FROM THE A.P.:
It’s a good thing Sonia Sotomayor speaks Sotomayoran.
After week upon week in which plenty of other people on the planet interpreted Sotomayor’s past comments, the Supreme Court nominee at last got a chance to deconstruct her own words Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Fingers splayed, palms flat, hands bouncing up and then deliberately pressing down to the table, Sotomayor elaborated, clarified, expanded, retracted.
She drew loopy circles on her paper; she ran rhetorical circles around her past words.
“I didn’t intend to suggest …” she explained.
“What I was speaking about …” she offered.
“As I have tried to explain …” she parsed.
“I wasn’t talking about …” she demurred.
She was a tough critic at times.
“I was using a rhetorical flourish that fell flat,” she averred.
“It was bad,” she said. Of her own words.
Democrats were only too happy to take Sotomayor’s rhetorical revisions at face value as she explained away the most problematic of her past remarks.
Ouch. There’s more. (Via Bookworm).
STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE: Markdowns on kitchen gadgets, mixers, etc.
GREAT MOMENTS IN CUPHOLDER HISTORY. If it were a 1960s Lotus, these flaws would be endearing.
THAT HURTS: A bad review for Sotomayor from Prof. Louis Michael Seidman of Georgetown. “If she was not perjuring herself, she is intellectually unqualified to be on the Supreme Court. If she was perjuring herself, she is morally unqualified.” On the notion of principles as dictating results, I agree with Seidman.
UPDATE: “To this point, it is impossible to tell from her responses whether she knows anything about constitutional law OR whether she simply does not want to offer any opinions that could possibly be criticized.” Though I suppose those aren’t mutually exclusive.
OBAMA AT ALL-STAR GAME: “We’re Out Of Money.”
ECONOMIC SUICIDE GIRLS.
WASHINGTON POST: Eve Rodriguez: Sotomayor’s Unconvincing Backpedaling. “I’m surprised and disturbed by how many times today Sonia Sotomayor has backed off of or provided less-than-convincing explanations for some of her more controversial speeches about the role of gender and ethnicity in judicial decision-making.”
THE CULT OF OBAMA IN NEW YORK CITY. I’m pretty sure the “OBEY” poster is parody, though. Pretty sure . . . .
UPDATE: A different atmosphere in St. Louis.
PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE? Sure, but if you want members of Congress to know, it’s not enough to send a memo. You need to staple a check to it.
WILL WILKINSON: Thinking Clearly About Economic Inequality.
U.S. BOOSTS SECRETIVE JAMMER-PLANE FLEET.
GRAND ROUNDS is up!
MODERATE ALCOHOL INTAKE reduces Alzheimer’s dementia risk. On the other hand, high alcohol intake makes it hard to tell the difference anyway . . . .
REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
REASON TV: The Case Against College Entitlements.
JOHN NOBLE WILFORD looks back on Apollo 11, now almost 40 years in the past.
OBAMA COMES TO MICHIGAN, TEA PARTY BREAKS OUT. I like the “No Czars In America” sign. More info and photos at the link.
KENNETH ANDERSON ON the legality of killing terrorists.
COMING SOON TO A PUMP NEAR YOU: Green Gasoline?