A great point is made over at the Brothers Judd Blog
It's hard to view the budget deficit as huge when it's only about the size of our annual farm subsidies, which we all recognize are a waste of money and, even worse, a transfer payment to the wealthy. You could balance the budget by getting rid of the Agriculture department and its attendant programs and have almost no deleterious effect on the American economy. But we haven't the political will to do so.
John Podhoretz asks: Why do the U.S. networks keep putting Palestinian spokespeople on TV when they so obviously lie?
Discover has a article on the biology of laughter that is full of all kinds of fascinating facts that could be employed in a variety of conversational settings. I learned, for example, that rats are ticklish, that breeding ticklish rats intensifies the ticklishness of resulting offspring, that the human brain has its very own tickle spot, and that premature death may follow laughter at your own mother's funeral.
We went running on the Hike and Bike Trail this evening, and who should be out there campaigning under the Mo-Pac bridge, but City Council candidate Kirk Mitchell. I amused Mr. Bucher to no end by informing him that Mr. Mitchell is running against the councilman he once financed, Daryl Slusher, because he doesn't think that the Austin City Council is concerned enough anymore with green issues.
Anyway, when I catch up with him at the bridge, Mr. Bucher is waiting on me, as usual, but instead of dying of exhaustion, he's dying laughing. He reports that the Sierra Club's Council candidate of choice, Kirk Mitchell, has now had his BMW parked in the middle of the road with the engine idling for at least a quarter hour. Meanwhile he continues to stump for votes, seemingly oblivious to the wanton waste of non-renewable natural resources and profligate effusion of car exhaust his Beemer is producing just ten feet away. And, of course, no one else seemed to see any inconsistency between word and deed, either.
Some environmentalist! The fact that his car was also haphazardly parked in a lane of traffic, shows, in my opinion, a egregious arrogance with respect to traffic issues. Though, if the environmentalists like Mr. Mitchell actually cared about the air pollution from all the cars idling in rush hour everyday, they'd support building this city more roads.
I found it amusing yesterday that several fancy-schmancy restaurants in the Big Apple have discovered the hibiscus tea that all our hippie diners serve here in Austin. It's good stuff and good for you, but I'm almost sorry to see it become just another trend. I wonder if this will lead to a greater embrace of iced tea (the house wine of the South) among the glitterati. Constant Comment tastes great iced, as well, but hopefully that will remain our little secret.
Israel has absorbed the flow of Jewish refugees from the rest of the Middle East, from the former Soviet Republics, and even from Ethiopia. A mass exodus from France may be next.
Fairly objective piece in Washington Post about the 'controversy' over Bush's insistence that policy decisions be based on "sound science."
According to Pianin, "The debate is highly subjective, frequently turning on nuanced interpretations of complicated scientific research, which makes it difficult to prove or disprove many of the White House claims -- or the claims of Bush's critics." That seems like a cop-out to me. Why is it so hard for reporters who are supposedly so intelligent to make sense of scientific research? Maybe they should add a basic science component to the journalism curriculum.
The piece could really have benefited from a mention of Bjorn Lomborg's examination of the science behind many policy recommendations made by the environmental lobby, but that's probably too much to ask.
Is it just me, or is this a creepy photo of a May Day rally in France? Especially considering the violence that marked the "holiday" in Berlin.
Or here's a quiz: Which of these photos was taken in the West Bank and which in Berlin?
Maybe the garbage gives it away?
For everyone who has been wondering how Saddam skims off the money for his presidential palaces, extravagant birthday festivals, and weapons of mass destruction, The Wall Street Journal has the definitive scoop. Basically he levies an illegal surcharge on every barrel he sells to selected middlemen, who then pass the expense on to oil traders, and eventually to you, yourself, at the pump.
Via Anne Wilson, an answer to the water shortage we're always hearing about: nuclear desalination! Yet another solution to an environmental problem that will be a hard sell to the "environmentalists," though. But then, they don't want solutions, they want an end to global capitalism. And they want it yesterday.
Speaking of rodents, news arrived yesterday that human scientists had made some radical improvements on the common rat, notably adding a remote-control feature. Have they made these these cybernetically-enhanced rats "better, stronger, faster?" Well, no. But the good doctors do think they could be used in future search and rescue operations. I have to say that, were I buried in rubble, I'm not I'd take much comfort in the knowledge that there was a huge rat cyborg coming for me. I think I'd still want Lassie.
According to a researcher interviewed by ABC News:Vegetarian Diet Kills Animals. Yep, countless little moles and mice died so that you might have tofu, dude.
UPDATE: Don't forget the dead bunnies!
CAMERA has a great and very extensive analysis of the NYT coverage of the Middle East conflict.
Inspired by Mrs. Ken Layne's "Plutonium Gurl," I tried to make a superhero simulacrum of myself: Accessory Girl!
Try it! It's fun!
Amusing profile in the Chicago Tribune on one of my favorite organizations, the Independent Women's Forum. The author seems to be absolutely shocked that there exist smart educated women who aren't drinking the NOW Kool-Aid.
Kadoura Mousa Kadoura, the director of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement for the northern West Bank now agrees with the Israelis that there were fewer than 60 deaths in Jenin. And if Fatah says so, it must be true, no?
Looks like tweezers are no longer verboten on the plane. This is good news, for as I mentioned a while ago, nothing beats airplane toilet lighting for thorough tweezing!
Nice post-Earth Day editorial on the symbiotic, and increasingly pernicious, interaction between the environmental movement and the Democratic Party in The New Republic. TNR environmental writer, Gregg Easterbrook also has a great report from AEI-Brookings on Bush's record: Everything You Know About the Bush Environmental Record is Wrong.
But barely. Been working like a dog on the very large paper. At last my labor has borne fruit and I sent off a couple of meaty chapters to the Reader last night. So why not blog?
Yep, I just worked up my courage to look at the stats. Looks like as many as 84 fine people still saw fit to check the site out today. Bless your sweet hearts! I can't tell you how sorry I am to disappoint those who have been by the page recently in search of fresh content. I really do intend to keep this thing up once I churn out this thesis-like object. Thanks for the continued support, folks!