Because he says it so much better than I could

IT’S PERSONAL. It just so happens that I have a couple of really ugly-ass dogs in this fight over embryonic stem-cell research. Not many political issues are personal with me, but this one deeply is. I have watched slow death from neurological disease once too often in my life to be anything but furious when Sam Brownback, a United States senator to the everlasting embarrassment of that body, pulls out a child’s drawing of an embryo with a smiley-face in order to argue his position. Or when Tony Snow, that towering public fake, starts getting glib about “murder,” as though there isn’t enough blood lapping at the ankles of everyone in this White House to float a barge. Or when Snow’s boss, that tough-talkin’, crumb-spittin’, neck-rubbin’ international buckaroo, uses the first veto of his presidential career and then hides behind children while maundering incoherently about a “moral line” as though he’d recognize one if he fell over it. Is there any doubt that, if this guy got Parkinson’s Disease, he’d eat those little buggers out of the petri dish with a spoon, probably dribbling some of them on Tony Blair in the process? Sorry, Ez. I don’t give a damn how tactically brilliant this may be. I look at this action and this is what I know — that millions of Americans will die horrible deaths and the government of the United States doesn’t give a good goddamn about them. Period. And, no, Senator Obama, I don’t have to respect the deeply held beliefs of anyone who condemns their fellow human beings to miserable suffering on the basis of anthropomorphized blastocysts in the service of an anthropomorphized god. Were it in my power, I’d run all those former embryos out of government until they grew the hell up.

Charles P. Pierce

10 Questions to Ask When Taking a Digital Photo

There are endless how-to lists on the internets.

10 Questions to Ask When Taking a Digital Photo seemed more useful than most.

Buck O’Neil still bringing ‘em to their feet at 94

Great story about baseball legend Buck O’Neil. Notice the crowd in the photo — on their feet for the 94-year-old. “O’Neil ambled to first base, then took a lead off the bag ….”

Except when I’m crying

So we’ve got Israel attacking Lebanon. Israel attacking Palestine. Hezbollah attacking Israel. Palestinians attacking Israel. Israel threatening to attack Syria and Iran. Iran meddling in Iraq. The US meddling in Iraq. Lots of terrorists and insurgents targetting the US. The US threatening Iran. Sunnis attacking Shiites. Shiites attacking Sunnis. The US and NATO fighting a resurgant Taliban in Afghanistan. Kurds attacking Turks.

And now, as predicted back when this whole mess was brewing, Turkey threatens to invade Iraq.

Turkish officials signaled Tuesday they are prepared to send the army into northern Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi forces do not take steps to combat Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there _ a move that could put Turkey on a collision course with the United States.

Turkey is facing increasing domestic pressure to act after 15 soldiers, police and guards were killed fighting the guerrillas in southeastern Turkey in the past week.

Daily Kos: Clusterfuck

I just sit here all day laughing

It’s a four letter word, one you hear every day

“President Bush was recorded using a four letter word at the G8 summit in Russia. At first everyone just thought he mispronounced the word ‘Shiite.’ But that wasn’t it.

“Kind of ironic. Bush is listening in on everyone else’s phone calls and now he’s the one who gets caught saying something he shouldn’t. Little payback there.”

Jay Leno Monday night

Even more ironic, Bush gets overheard using a word that would cost a broadcaster $325,000.

Why me?

For the third time in the life of NewMexiKen’s five-year-old Lexus it had to pass an emissions test to renew the registration. Each time, with me $25 or $30 poorer, it’s passed — of course it does, I’ve read that 95% of newer vehicles do.

So yesterday, I went to a local iffy lube type place where they weren’t busy, were very friendly and got me out in less than 10 minutes. I came home and detached the coupon from the test results, made out the check for $51 for one year’s registration, and mailed the envelope off. With tax, that’s nearly $80 for everything, but that’s a lot less than many states I know, so I was glad to have one more thing off my list.

Then this morning I get ready to put the rest of the emissions paperwork in with the registration and insurance forms in the glove compartment. I glance at it. There’s a typo in the license plate number.

Three letters, three numbers, how hard can it be to get it right? And why didn’t I have sense enough to check it over?

How much would you like to wager this will result in a trip to the dreaded MVD before it’s over?

All about bloggers

Related surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that the blog population has grown to about 12 million American adults, or about 8% of adult internet users and that the number of blog readers has jumped to 57 million American adults, or 39% of the online population.

These are some of the key findings in a new report issued by the Pew Internet Project titled “Bloggers”:

• 54% of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44% say they have published elsewhere.
• 54% of bloggers are under the age of 30.
• Women and men have statistical parity in the blogosphere, with women representing 46% of bloggers and men 54%.
• 76% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to document their personal experiences and share them with others.
• 64% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to share practical knowledge or skills with others.
• When asked to choose one main subject, 37% of bloggers say that the primary topic of their blog is “my life and experiences.”
• Other topics ran distantly behind: 11% of bloggers focus on politics and government; 7% focus on entertainment; 6% focus on sports; 5% focus on general news and current events; 5% focus on business; 4% on technology; 2% on religion, spirituality or faith; and additional smaller groups who focus on a specific hobby, a health problem or illness, or other topics.

… Some additional data points from the Bloggers report:

• 87% of bloggers allow comments on their blog
• 72% of bloggers post photos to their blog
• 55% of bloggers blog under a pseudonym
• 41% of bloggers say they have a blogroll or friends list on their blog
• 8% of bloggers earn money on their blog

Ah, but the Lord works in mysterious ways

Ralph Reed, who lost yesterday, in his effort to be elected lieutenant governor of Georgia.

Underarm Deodorant

Not everybody uses it, and this is a very important point. Even with just a billion people using it, a few decades back … and some of those billion using roll-on deodorant … the emission of chlorofluorocarbons still made a giant hole in Earth’s ozone layer.

And it was widening.

The global community was alarmed and took action and now three things are true:

* More people than ever use deodorant (praise the Lord)

* None of it emits chlorofluorocarbons (an alternative propellant was found — likewise for refrigerants)

* The hole in the ozone layer gradually disappeared (but you should still use SPF 15 or higher this weekend)

Okay? Do you see my point?

No?

My point is that if a little Right Guard can threaten our atmospheric equilibrium, isn’t it just really dumb to bet that the literally trillions of pounds of carbon dioxide we dump into the air each year will have no effect? Be honest: don’t you use more gasoline than deodorant?

— Andrew Tobias

Lieberman’s new endorsement

Click image to enlarge and read at Jesus’ General.

Working out with a Nano

The Mossberg Solution tries out the new Nike + iPod Nano Sport Kit and likes it — a lot, though with a couple reservations.

Also, iLounge has updated its Free iPod Book to version 2.2 to include the Sport Kit. There appears to be a lot of good information (and lots of ads) in this .pdf file. The book is over 100 pages of all things iPod and iTunes.