Best line of the day

“I love sports. I think that’s what sportswriting on the Internet is all about. There’s a connection between writer and reader on the Internet that goes beyond the printed page. There are comments, easy ways to reply, polls and video and audio embedded, arguments, agreements, feelings hurt, exclamation points, it’s a lot like talking sports in a bar. In some ways it’s even better than talking sports in a bar because there isn’t crappy music playing too loud and the drunk who is screaming ‘Yankees RUULLLLE!’ is easily skipped over in the comments section. It’s not as good as talking sports in a bar, however, because the Internet does not offer beer. I expect Apple to fix that with their next version of the iPad.”

Joe Posnanski

Best line of the day

“A few strokes before midnight Sunday, a motorcycle policeman turned on his red and blue lights and led four Oregon Ducks buses from Arizona Stadium to the airport.

“It was the only time all night that anything red and blue had a step on the Ducks.”

Greg Hansen, Tucson Arizona Daily Star

Red and blue are Arizona’s colors.

Arizona has gone 63-84 since its 12-1 season in 1998.

Best line of the day

“This is what I was thinking when I walked up to the kid who was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the images of Thomas Jefferson and Ron Paul. I asked him if Congressman Paul would have supported President Jefferson when the latter pole-vaulted over the powers of his office, and over almost everything he’d ever said in his life regarding the authority of the federal government, in order to buy the Louisiana Territory so we could all one day have a whole lot of college football. He looked dimly at me as though I had taken to speaking in Finnish. And, in my mind’s eye, Clio, the Muse of History, gulps 12 Quaaludes and reaches for the tequila.”

Charles P. Pierce

Pierce has a new politics blog. Awesome!

“Rick Perry was in the Air Force. Herman Cain did ballistics analysis for the Navy. Jon Huntsman has worked government jobs for 20 years, and Mitt Romney’s father was governor of Michigan. Rick Scott proudly admits he grew up in public housing, and Paul Ryan got through high school and college on Social Security survivor’s benefits. And this is how they all came to become small-government conservatives who didn’t need a hand-out.”

Line of the day

“In the final hours, Kim Kardashian tweeted, ‘There’s still hope! The Supreme Court has delayed Troy Davis’s Execution for 1 hour to review his case!!!’ Ann Coulter tweeted, just moments before Kardashian’s, ‘ONE TROY DAVIS FLAME-BROILED, PLEASE.’ America’s brightest, divided.”

Mark Anthony Green — The New Yorker

Green’s essay is a very good take on the matter.

Redux post of the day

From five years ago.


Just three Tuesday, Aidan found out from his mother Wednesday that Abraham Lincoln was dead and they couldn’t go visit him. The little guy cried for 20 minutes.

I feel the same way some times.

Which reminded me of a meme I saw at Shakespeare’s Sister.

“If you could sit down to a meal with a president (any president) and ask him one question: who is the president and what is the question?”

Shakes’ Sister suggested George W. Bush and her question was “What the f**k?”

I think I’d have to choose Lincoln. And, being from New Mexico, of course I’d have to ask him, “Red or green?”

Best redux line of the day

From two years ago today.


“Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized and run by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the cooks British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, and it is all organized and run by the Italians.”

Best line for this date

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787

Best line of the day

“And what this means is that modern conservatism is actually a deeply radical movement, one that is hostile to the kind of society we’ve had for the past three generations — that is, a society that, acting through the government, tries to mitigate some of the ‘common hazards of life’ through such programs as Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.”

Paul Krugman in Friday’s column.

Best lines of the day

When it comes to foreign policy, the saying goes that politics stops at the water’s edge.

When it comes to climate science, we say that politics should stop at the atmosphere’s edge.

One of us is a Republican, the other a Democrat. We hold different views on many issues. But as scientists, we share a deep conviction that leaders of both parties must speak to the reality and risks of human-caused climate change, and commit themselves to finding bipartisan solutions.

Scientists have known for more than 100 years that carbon dioxide in our atmosphere traps heat. And today we know that the excess carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere from human activity – primarily, burning coal and oil and clearing forests – is altering our climate.

It’s a conclusion based on established physics and on evidence gathered from satellite data, ancient ice cores, temperature stations, fossilized trees and corals. …

Read more from Peter C. Frumhoff and Kerry Emanuel.

Best line of the day

“Rick Santorum, Bachmann and Ron Paul ganged up on Perry for trying to get Texas girls inoculated against cervical cancer. This is a big deal for some social conservatives, but it’s still interesting to think that we have presidential candidates who believe that they could score a stunning upset victory on an anti-cancer-prevention platform.”

Gail Collins