The new Smarter Harper's is available: the expense of Presidential primaries, flag sales in England and other bald-faced lies slippery stats from Harper's, expertly dissected.

Charming

Protesters in Africa use surplus signs from the nutters at Democratic Underground.

Blogroll changes

I just added ParaPundit after I swooned over this graf:

There will be no big reform of Social Security or Medicare. These programs will be managed in crisis mode with growing numbers of retirees voting to increase taxes on those who are still working each time either program starts to run out of money. There will be rises in the eligible retirement age. But those rises will come too late to prevent a long running crisis in old age retirement program funding as the pyramid scheme becomes unsustainable.

Well put.

What’s going on over at Cut on the Bias?

Susanna has an extemporaneous conversation with some physical assistants and they hate CNN too. Further down, there’s a long post on the death penalty with this section: “One of the major objections to the death penalty is the possibility that an innocent person may be wrongly executed. It’s happened; it could happen again.”

I don’t think that’s right. As far as I know, nobody’s been exonerated of his/her crime after suffering the death penalty. I could be wrong, but that would be a rarity.

Dems to Doctors: Drop Dead (from malpractice insurance costs)

Dr. DB at DB’s Medical Rants points to this Opinion Journal article today about how Democrats are going to “walk the plank again” for their trial lawyer overlords and block a vote on a medical malpractice reform (the “Patients First” bill).

Democrats have long made the Senate the graveyard of any and all legal reform. The news is that they're having a harder time getting away with it. The scandal of asbestos litigation has forced them at least to bargain on that issue, while momentum is also building to limit class-action suits. It says something about Tom Daschle's devotion to the trial bar that he's willing to ask his Members to walk the plank even on medical liability, just as voters are discovering the damage it is doing to health care across the country.

Democrats (such as former ambulance chaser John Edwards) have tried to pin soaring malpractice costs on the insurance companies, but doctors (like DB) simply aren’t buying it.

4 p.m. update from the Washington Post: Democrats Block White House-Supported Malpractice Bill

Today’s “Dog Bites Man” story: Democrats are confused

From “Tricky Question for Democrats: When Is Open Season on One Another?” in today’s NYT

This unsettled environment has dizzied the campaigns as they debate what to do and when to do it — essentially, a game of political chicken in which candidates wait for someone else to take the first shot. The result has been what could kindly be described as confused behavior by the candidates and their advisers.

In a related story, John Edwards made a campaign stop in Toronto.

According to the Corner, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on William Pryor’s nomination to the Federal Court. Get ready for a party-line vote followed by (my predicted) filibuster.

There was one vote on the Senate floor yesterday – Kerry missed it (along with Lieberman and Edwards), thereby extending his month-long streak of skipping all Senate votes.

I am a rock and an island: Nautical experts Simon and Garfunkel in a legal footnote, thanks to Howard Bashman.

No!

From the Washington Times:

NEW ORLEANS — The president of the National Education Association acknowledges that the union is left-wing politically and 90 percent pro-Democrat but says he wants to reach out more to Republicans.

"I think many [Republican leaders in the Bush administration and Congress] feel as though we may not support as many Republicans as Democrats. That has been true in the past," NEA President Reg Weaver told The Washington Times in an exclusive interview at the conclusion of the union's annual convention here.

It’s true of the present and future also, Reg.

Hat tip to Joanne Jacobs who has much more on the NEA story .

So long, Herbie

The last Volkswagen Beetle will be rolling off the factory floor in Mexico on Thursday after 70 years of checkered history. In preparation for their own religion’s Armageddon, adherents of Volkswagenism will be simulating winter in a VW Bug by standing in a meat freezer and setting their feet on fire.

Security through Obscurity

A grad student at George Mason University published a dissertation that mapped the U.S. fiber-optic network and the national security experts are wigging out:

“He should turn it in to his professor, get his grade – and then they both should burn it,” said Richard Clarke, who until recently was the White House cyberterrorism chief. “The fiber-optic network is our country’s nervous system.”

I think that trying to hide sensitive information rarely works, but by the same token we shouldn’t make the information so widespread as to invite attack. That is, some people (read the article) seem to want to publish sensitive intelligence just because they can…but they shouldn’t.

The Blogger Cycle - An excellent cartoon from Cox and Forkum.

"Lieberman headquarters here....Go Bush!"

Democrats just can't win - here's a story from the New York Post's Page Six:

JOE Lieberman's new press secretary has an unfortunate moniker. Lieberman's old flack, Dan Gerstein, has left to head up the senator's presidential campaign, and his replacement is Matt Gobush. "How funny is that?" laughed one politico. "The man who will be quoted most often as Lieberman runs against [President] Bush has a name that basically wins it for the Republicans." Indeed, Gobush used to work for Al Gore.

A much funnier newspaper correction

From Howard Kurtz’s Media Notes today:

From the Roswell, N.M., Daily Record: "The story regarding the Father's Day Invitational golf tournament on Page B1 contained an encounter with one 'Carl Spangler' whom the story reported had invented a new type of grass for golfing. . . . It came to the attention of management that the incident had not taken place and was in fact a scene from a movie. After discovering this, management immediately terminated the author."

Allegedly the grass is a hybrid. This is a cross, ah, of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia.

Media Minded is packing it in again, but this time he says it’s permanent. Too bad.

I'll probably keep him on the blogroll until he comes to his senses - just like I'm doing for The Safety Valve.

Crazy like a fox

When I first heard of Bush’s “Bring ‘em on” taunt, I thought it was an intemperate remark that needlessly endangered American troops. But now I’m coming around to the belief that the comment was 1.) psychological – such as in the words of Heretical Ideas: “Weakness invites attack. Strength deters it. (thanks to Ipse Dixit) and 2.) strategical – to draw attacks away from the United States and Israel – as detailed in the excellent essay by David Warren.

The continuing humor of the New York Times correction page

Here's a good one today:

An article on Tuesday included an erroneous phrase supplied in a Pentagon transcript of remarks by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld about people who compare the attacks against American troops in Iraq to guerrilla tactics used in the Vietnam war. The secretary criticized "press people" for drawing the comparison, not "oppressed people."

I thought they fired Jayson Blair...

Liberia’s President Agrees to Leave

President Bush said he wanted Taylor out…

“The one thing that must happen is Charles Taylor has got to leave. A condition for any kind of operation that stabilizes the country is for Mr. Taylor to leave the country, and hopefully we can achieve that objective diplomatically.”

And he’s leaving. Does anybody find this as amazing as I do? Clearly the American show of global force has rattled some dictators.

I love this country + I'm a lousy drunk

A couple days ago I posted a comment on Insignificant Thoughts about how Jon Stewart made a note after 9/11 about the Statue of Liberty. Vinny asked me to provide the exact quote and I found Stewart's opening monologue here. It should be required reading, but here's the main part I was referring to:

The view from my apartment was the World Trade Center and now it's gone. They attacked it. This symbol of American ingenuity and strength and labor and imagination and commerce and it is gone. But you know what the view is now? The Statue of Liberty. The view from the south of Manhattan is now the Statue of Liberty. You can't beat that.

Here comes the lousy drunk part where I ramble on, so tune out now if you want.

In the movie "City Slickers", Jack Palance tells Billy Crystal that the mean of life is one thing, but that one thing is different to everybody. Tonight, after dinner at the Ground Round, my younger son got separated from us while walking through the mall. It was just something stupid - we think he just followed somebody he thought was mom/dad - but it was extremely troubling for a couple of minutes.

So, there you go: my family is my one thing. They mean everything to me. And if it means exposing the Saudi complicity into 9/11 and the Islamo-fascist cabel behind terrorism from Dearborn to Dubai, then so be it. And I'm going to keep on doing my very small part to move this country and this world towards more freedom, openness, and security as long as I'm able.

OK....that's it. Time for another Sam Adams.

A nice story for the Fourth of July

A couple years back, the guy who was the scientist at our company became a naturalized citizen of the USA. At the time, he was my colleague but eventually he rose to become the engineering manager (and my boss). But before he rose to that lofty and well-earned position, he had to struggle against unimaginable obstacles after escaping from Communist China (like, you know, learning English). So, after he became a full-blown American citizen, we had a little party for him at work and I put together an "American Survival Kit" including:

TV Guide
Baseball
Wiffle ball bat & ball
Nerf football
Six-pack of Budweiser
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" - Mark Twain
"The Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck
"Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen
The Very Best of Jay and the Americans
Apple Pie
Hot dogs & buns
Mustard
American Flag

A lot of people told me how funny/appropriate/great the "kit" was, and my colleague/boss was visibly emotional as we sang "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was a great memory of what America is all about.