Duck Season

(Cleaning out the bookmark file)

Andrew Stuttaford reports on an absolutely ridiculous Shakespeare exam from England:

One question on Henry V states that the king was regarded as a hero and asks candidates to write about "people you admire".

Another refers to the importance of appearance in Twelfth Night and asks pupils: "How important is what you wear? Write your views as if contributing to a piece in a teenage magazine."

1) Colin Powell says we'll be in Iraq "as long as it takes" in this Opinion Journal editorial.

2) James Lilek has news on everything from Saddam's ties to Al-Qaeda, to a simply masterful send up of all the administration nay-sayers. It must be read. I mean it.

An enticement:

In short: the same people who chide America for its short-attention span think we should have stopped military operations after the Taliban was routed. (And they quite probably opposed that, for the usual reasons.) The people who think it’s all about oil like to snark that we should go after Saudi Arabia. The people who complain that the current administration is unable to act with nuance and diplomacy cannot admit that we have completely different approaches for Iraq, for Iran, for North Korea. The same people who insist we need the UN deride the Administration when it gives the UN a chance to do something other than throw rotten fruit.

The same people who accuse America of coddling dictators are sputtering with bilious fury because we actually deposed one.

****

Let us go back to that editorial from 1998.

“There is one sound conclusion to be drawn from the confluence of events in Washington and Iraq: The conduct of foreign policy is a weighty responsibility that at times requires the undivided attention of a whole, unencumbered president. It is a sad commentary that some voices in Washington are complaint that momentous world events have interrupted their sideshow. . . . Events in Iraq make it clear that there is a world out there which requires the attention of the US Government. It’s time to shift focus away from the neighborhood farce and back to the world stage.”

This was a reference to the impeachment proceedings, of course. The editorialists were appalled that Congress was impeaching the president when the threat of Iraq loomed so large. Now the threat has been dispatched - and does this count for anything? No. The terrorist training campes are closed down, the torture barracks padlocked, the mass gravesare opened to the wailings of the families, the official hospitals of Baghdad no longer welcome cancerous terrorists, the Kurds no longer watch the skies for the helicopters and their bitter gusts, the citizens no longer wonder whether the government men will rip out the eyes of their infant children to produce the proper confession -

Irrelevant.

You know what really bothers some people?

That yellowcake story still looks shaky.

3) Vaclav Havel, Former President of the Czech Republic, Arpad Göncz, Former President of Hungary, and Lech Walesa, Former President of Poland call for Europe to support a democratic society in Cuba.

In a post about his liberal friends Steve from Begging to Differ gets taken to the mat by a loyal BTD reader:

UPDATE: A reader responds: "Either you have incredibly odd, stupid friends who can't separate causal variables from dependent variables or you're making up fake friends to drive home a disingenuous, partisan smear."

If only we had that kind of diligent readership! That being said, while Steve kindly acknowledges his shortcomings, I believe he does so in err.

As the reader points out, it is the sad state of affairs that many liberals rely on fraudulent dependent variable relationships. This is exactly the point Steve was making. While he didn't put it so succinctly (if only we could all be so concise sometimes), liberals are making these silly arguments.

UPDATE: Michael J. Totten thrashes more silly arguments.

UPDATE2: Paul Krugman makes an ass of himself: "The real threat isn't some terrorists who can kill a few people now and then but are not fundamentally a threat to the continuation of America as I know it, but the internal challenge from very powerful domestic political forces who want to do away with America as I know it."

UPDATE3: Who could forget the soccer match between the communists and anarchists which ended with a celebration of "the hopeful demise of the U.S. government." That's good sportsmanship.

Welcome to the town of Kut, Iraq, also known as the "White Flower." A sleepy little town where the "latest fad food in the street market is the brown Meal-Ready-to-Eat (MRE) pack of U.S. rations that hawkers traded for cans of Pepsi" and which is enjoying "new-found prosperity as a trade hub." This town is so removed from the feyadeen Saddam that "only explosions... are from the fishermen throwing grenades to stun the fish behind the city dam"

Yup. It's a nice town worth a look, full of folks with a sense of humor. While commenting on the equipment of the Ukraine brigade that has taken control of the area from the United States, Ali Mohammed says them troops in their lime-colored, Soviet-made armored vehicles never come into town because "the only time I used to see them, they'd broken down."

I'm not so much interested in whether or not that would be a Bushism (which blogger spell-check wants to change to facism) as I am what degenerate gamblers think of Gray Davis' odds to remain in power. You should bring back that weekly segment of our program.

There was also a reported BNL sighting you've yet to own up to. You can't hide much from me, I'm practically unsupervised at work and on here all the time.

Both Eric Lindholm and Eugene Volokh link to this Gray Davis quote from the San Francisco Chronicle:

"My vision is to make the most diverse state on earth, and we have people from every planet on the earth in this state. We have the sons and daughters of every, of people from every planet, of every country on earth," he said.

Maybe he was simply talking about all the illegal aliens in his state.

Weren't they supposed to have spun off Howard Dean shares from the rest-of-field stock yesterday at 5pm CST?

Does anyone else see a lot of similarities between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Wesley Clark?

--Both are easily the one with the most star power in their respective races, and are relying on their celebrity status for their initial support.

--Both have past careers in fields dominated by members of the other party (Arnold in Hollywood, Clark in the military).

--Both got into the race late after a lot of (some say planned) "will-he-or-won't-he" speculation.

--Both are viewed by their respective parties as candidates who can attract moderates.

--Both are competing with someone more ideological in their own party (Dean in the case of Clark; McClintock, Arnold).

--The debate between Republicans in California is whether to support the "right" candidate or the electable one. This type of debate could surface in the Democratic primaries if Clark is running even with Dean later in the game.

--Both are taking efforts to avoid any details in regard to their positions on issues, instead using vague phrases palatable to those in their party who can then project specifics onto their candidate.

No Doubt is releasing a Greatest Hits album, from which the only new material will be a cover of the 1984 Talk Talk hit "It's My Life", as well as a Boxed Set in November:

No new material will be found in the box set, but Stefani said there doesn't need to be — so many rarities will be included, it'll seem new to most fans — maybe even to the band.

"There are tons of B-sides," she said, "weird ones that I don't even have, so I was like, 'Cool, I'm finally going to have that track, I forgot about that one.' "

Besides B-sides, the limited-edition box set will include the singles collection, a DVD of the band's music videos and a DVD version of 1997's Live in the Tragic Kingdom. And if that weren't enough, the band is also planning to release "Rock Steady Live," a DVD of a show taped last year in at the Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, California.

I really wonder what the track list of the Greatest Hits album will look like. The band has gone through such metamorphosisis with their sound, fans who can't really remember 1992 might be shocked to discover what No Doubt once sounded like.

Through the wonders of digital technology I built my own No Doubt: Greatest Hits album last summer, I'll post the track list later if I think of it.

Steve at Begging to Differ has an interesting write-up about a 15 year old student at Freedom (formerly French?) High School who wants to start a Caucasian Club:

Lisa McClelland insists that she is not a racist.
The 15-year-old freshman at Freedom High School says her campaign to start a Caucasian Club on campus is an effort to bolster diversity, not promote bigotry.

"Hmmm... racial clubs promoting diversity... I wonder where she got that idea?" says Steve.

Jonah Goldberg links to this story in the Washington Post about the Patriot Act.

How often has uber-scary section 215, which allows the government to search your library records amongst other things, been used?

"Zero" says John Ashcroft.

The Independent has decideed that "food manufacturers that market American-style mega-meals and jumbo portions are to blame for Britain's obesity epidemic, a conference was told yesterday."

Andrew Stuttaford thrashes the piece:

"Research in the US has shown that in the past 20 years the size of a standard hamburger has increased by 112 per cent and bagels by 195 per cent. Pasta servings are 480 per cent bigger and cookies 700 per cent larger."


The key, I suppose, is in the word 'serving', but, even allowing for that, the figure for cookies seems unbelievable. A cookie a seventh of the size of the typical offering we see today wouldn't be a cookie, it would be a crumb.

Isn't it a well known fact that every time the Food Pyramid gets redone that "suggested serving sizes" are also scaled down? It isn't the case that Cookies are 700 per cent larger, but the "suggested serving size" of a cookie has shrunk. The value of the numerator can remain constant, yet when the denominator decreases, the value of the fraction changes.

From the Washington Post (emphasis added):

The business establishment here, with Starbucks pitching in about $50,000, paid for a campaign called Joined in Opposition to the Latte Tax. JOLT poked fun at the tax, even as it praised the idea of spending more on low-income, preschool children.

"Child care is too important an issue to be funded by a single group of people," said Andrea Lehwalder, a spokeswoman for JOLT. "This vote means that Seattle voters care about kids, but they agree that this is no way to fund child care."

That is not what Tuesday's vote means, according to John Burbank, who came up with the idea of the latte tax and is executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, a local public policy group.

"This was a test of the willingness of Seattle voters to tax themselves for an important public good," he said. "I think that test was failed."

Burbank complained that the Seattle City Council, after heavy lobbying by the Chamber of Commerce and companies such as Starbucks, intentionally sabotaged the tax by putting it on the ballot in an off-year primary, when turnout is low and voters are generally more conservative.

"This was a tax that was purposefully designed to fall on upper-income people," he said. "If people had objectively looked at this tax, they would have seen it as a well-thought-out form of revenue in a state that doesn't have an income tax."

So liberals aren't required to vote in off year elections?

Michael Moore endorses Clark.

UPDATE Jonah Goldberg says he's opposed to Clark because it's hard to make fun of him.

A follow-up to this story about the efforts of the teacher's union to prevent a charter school from opening in Sacramento: Matt Cox reports on National Review Online that the charter school, run by former NBA player Kevin Johnson's St. HOPE organization, has opened for the start of school season. This was accomplished despite threats by supporters of the union to imprison the school board members by suing for contempt of court for voting in favor of the charter school. Previously, a local judge had ruled that the original school charter was invalid, but St. HOPE managed to submit a second successful petition.

This is a rant about stupid people.

Rachel Lucas (not one of the stupid people) has a satellite picture of Hurricane Isabel. Looks pretty scary, since the hurricane seem to be absolutely huge. So it makes sense that the people around here are preparing for the hurricane, right? One problem: it's not coming to Massachusetts, and it's not even going to be close to eastern Mass., unless it significantly changes course.

I show up at work at the local supermarket today, and most of the flashlights and much of the D batteries were gone. Also, it was hard to move around in the back room, because we were taking a delivery of pallets upon pallets of bottled water.

The weather forecast for Quincy this weekend: cloudy Thursday, probable rain Friday, chance of rain Saturday partly cloudy Sunday. Nothing about Hurricane Isabel carrying houses to Oz. Yet people are buying supplies as if they're preparing for 40 days of rain.

I don't know about other places, but let me tell you: this happens every time there's reports of bad weather. This probably is the result of their experiences from the '78 nor'easter, when there were 40 inches of snow and many people were trapped in, among other places, the Boston Garden for a week. But come on, people, this is 25 years ago. Since then, every time there's reports of 3 inches of snow coming, people empty out the supermarket shelves of milk, eggs, bread, flashlights, water, and everything else they think they need to prepare for the apocalypse.

And about the flashlights: why do they keep buying them? I can understand the repeat purchase of the other stuff, since they're consumable. But what do they do with the flashlights after the bad weather?

UPDATE Duck Season: now part of the Axis of Isabel. Meryl Yourish has the roundup.

The Sweedish government announced on Wednesday that it was going to censure the Oprah Winfrey talk show for its "bias toward a U.S. military attack on Iraq."

Annelie Ulfhielm, an official of Sweden's Broadcasting Commission, told Reuters: "Deefffferent feeoos vere-a ixpressed, boot ell lunger remerks gefe-a fueece-a tu zee oopeeniun thet Seddem Hoosseeen ves a threet tu zee Uneeted Stetes und shuoold be-a zee terget ooff etteck."

(Translation via the Dialectizer)

1) 68 percent of Seattle voters don't care about children. A proposed $0.10 per cup espressso-tax was thoroughly defeated at the ballot box yesterday. The generated revenue, "estimated to be $1.5 million to $7 million a year, would go toward city preschool and day-care programs, which have suffered from state and local budget cuts."

2) Dumbest idea that might be true: "Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix believes that Iraq destroyed most of its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago, but kept up the appearance that it had them to deter a military attack. "

Soccer game: anarchists vs. communists. The anarchists kept kicking the ball into their own goal to "stick it to the man", with the communists responding by picking off the anarchists one-by-one for being "creative". Final score: Communists 11, anarchists 0. (Via Andrew Sullivan)

Sam Adams, who scored a touchdown off an interception for the Bills in week 1, was on the cover of Sports Illustrated last week. A list of players who had been (or were in their plans to be) on the cover of SI this season:

--As previously mentioned, Sports Illustrated had planned on putting Mike Vick on the cover of its football preview issue before his injury.

--Their plan B was Chad Pennington, but then he got hurt too.

--SI ended up putting Kurt Warner on the cover of the preview issue. Warner then gets a concussion in week 1 and is now benched in favor of Marc Bulger.

From Jonah's latest syndicated column:

The Europeans should be ashamed of themselves because they claim to care more about the Third World - and pretty much everything else - than we do. The United States should be ashamed because we claim to be free marketers and we're not. And the protesters should be ashamed because their solution to a bad process is to make it much worse.

If the protesters had their way, there would be less, not more, global trade. Not only would that keep poor people poor, it would continue to hurt the environment they claim to care so much about. Rich countries have clean environments. Poor countries don't.

The pro-recall side got over a million signatures from Californian citizens to start the recall. The anti-recall side got three judges to delay the recall. Still, the anti-recall people call the recall "undemocratic". Who's being undemocratic now?

Little Green Footballs is reporting on a distributing case of Anti-Semitism in Academia at UC Berklee. Nothing too remarkable about this story yet, right?

How about LGF accusing Eugene Volokh, the Volokh, of defending the anti-semite? The whole thing must be read to be believed.

Link via Arkat Kingtroll blog

People with the same sleeping position as I do "tends to be more suspicious", according to a study on sleeping positions and personality.

Received this message from Michael Moore in my Inbox this morning:

Three Easy Pieces for Any Decent American (from Michael Moore)
September 15, 2003

There are many otherwise decent Americans who are either still on the fence about George W. Bush or they actually profess to like the man. They are the ones who make up the 58% approval ratings and the 64% who say they still believe the war was a good idea. You know these people well. They work next to you, or they sit in the classroom next to you, or they may even be sitting at your kitchen table right now!

I think that we need to hold out a hand to them, not in a partisan sort of way, and not with any condescension. I think that if we share with them a few pieces of information, and do it with common sense instead of politics, there is a chance we just might break through and turn things around. Perhaps it's my foolish optimism in the goodness that is in every person, and in their ability to ultimately know right from wrong.

Isn't that nice that he still has faith in my soul?

I would like to give you three little vignettes to share with them. They are so simple and so shocking in their very content that, if you pass them around the office, the school, the neighborhood or the bedroom, it may just do the trick. Here they are:

1. GEORGE AND LAURA ON 9/11 -- A BARREL OF LAUGHS!

The following is an interview with the First Couple from the current issue of one of my favorite magazines, Ladies Home Journal (Oct. '03). They are asked about what September 11, 2001, was like for them personally, and, although over 3,000 people had just perished, George W. was able to find some humor by the end of that day:

Peggy Noonan (the interviewer): You were separated on September 11th. What was it like when you saw each other again?

Laura Bush: Well, we just hugged. I think there was a certain amount of security in being with each other than being apart.

George W. Bush: But the day ended on a relatively humorous note. The agents said, "you'll be sleeping downstairs. Washington's still a dangerous place." And I said no, I can't sleep down there, the bed didn't look comfortable. I was really tired, Laura was tired, we like our own bed. We like our own routine. You know, kind of a nester. I knew I had to deal with the issue the next day and provide strength and comfort to the country, and so I needed rest in order to be mentally prepared. So I told the agent we're going upstairs, and he reluctantly said okay. Laura wears contacts, and she was sound asleep. Barney was there. And the agent comes running up and says, "We're under attack. We need you downstairs," and so there we go. I'm in my running shorts and my T-shirt, and I'm barefooted. Got the dog in one hand, Laura had a cat, I'm holding Laura --

Laura Bush: I don't have my contacts in , and I'm in my fuzzy house slippers --

George W. Bush: And this guy's out of breath, and we're heading straight down to the basement because there's an incoming unidentified airplane, which is coming toward the White House. Then the guy says it's a friendly airplane. And we hustle all the way back up stairs and go to bed.

Mrs. Bush: [LAUGHS] And we just lay there thinking about the way we must have looked.

Peggy Noonan (interviewer): So the day starts in tragedy and ends in Marx Brothers.

George W. Bush: THAT'S RIGHT-- WE GOT A LAUGH OUT OF IT!

(end)

Of course, I just ran out to my local convenience store and none of the issues of LHJ that I checked had the President's words capitalized. That Moore neglected to mention that the emphasis was his own is a minor point when considering Moore's real point, that the President and Laura are insensitive oafs. Of course the President and Mrs. Bush weren't making light of the days events at all, nor were they laughing at the expensive of the victims families. These activities would clearly be beyond the bounds of common decency.

No. The crime the Bush family committed on that night was one of insensitivity to normalcy! How dare they try and releave their personal stresses by laughing at the ridiculousness of their own appearances? What person in their right mind would ever make fun of the way Bush looks, let alone on the eve of such a national tragedy. Isn't it incredulous that anyone would look to find comfort in a family bond in a time of such turmoil? Afterall, who needs hope, or comfort, or a momentary peace of mind in the face of such a deeply disturbing event?

No one, that's who!

Although America had just suffered the worst attack ever on our own soil, somehow this man was able to end his day on a funny note. I wonder how many of the 3,000 families who lost someone earlier that day had a funny ending before they went to sleep? Please read the above exchange aloud to anyone who will listen. It speaks volumes.

September 11th, 2001 - the day humor died.

2. WE HAVE JUST WRECKED OUR KIDS' FUTURE.

The first paragraph in yesterday's New York Times story on how Bush has taken a record surplus and demolished it into a record deficit was one of the best lead paragraphs I have ever read in a newspaper article.

Of course he has done this all personally, out of spite for those prosperous democrats. I believe economic ruination was a key cog in his re-election campaign.

Here's how it went:

"When President Bush informed the nation last Sunday night that remaining in Iraq next year will cost another $87 billion, many of those who will actually pay that bill were unable to watch. They had already been put to bed by their parents."

Bingo. Gee, I hope the kids thank us some day!

Here's the next paragraph (my emphasis added):

Hey! Look! He was kind enough to warn us ahead of time.

"Administration officials acknowledged the next day that every dollar of that cost will be BORROWED, a loan that economists say will be repaid by the NEXT generation of taxpayers AND THE GENERATION AFTER THAT. The $166 BILLION cost of the work SO FAR in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has stunned many in Washington, will be added to what was already the largest budget deficit the nation has ever known."

Every conservative friend of yours should weep when they read that, and then you should hug them and tell them that it'll be okay, once we all do what we need to do.

Although I am pretty sure conservatives don't like to be touched, it probably is easier for then to lift your wallet out of your pocket from the being hugged position.

3. WHAT WOULD $87 BILLION BUY?

AKA How greedy can we be in the face of global poverty.

If you can't get through this list without wanting to throw up, I'll understand. But pass it around anyway. This is the nail in the Iraq War's coffin for any sane, thinking individual, regardless of their political stripe (thanks to TomPaine.com and the Center for American Progress)...

To get some perspective, here are some real-life comparisons about what $87 billion means:

$87 Billion Is More Than The Combined Total Of All State Budget Deficits In The United States.

The Bush administration proposed absolutely zero funds to help states deal with these deficits, despite the fact that their tax cuts drove down state revenues. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]

Of course states are free to raise their tax base and absorb those extra tax revenues, which they've largely been left to do.

$87 Billion Is Enough To Pay The 3.3 Million People Who Have Lost Jobs Under George W. Bush $26,363 Each!

On top of all the money they've already gotten! It's not like there are poorer people in Iraq who could use this aid to rebuild their lives. Who cares about them? They can't afford my DVDs, or my books. They can just starve to death. Oh wait, isn't that exactly what they were doing before the war?

The unemployment benefits extension passed by Congress at the beginning of this year provides zero benefits to "workers who exhausted their regular, state unemployment benefits and cannot find work." All told, two-thirds of unemployed workers have exhausted their benefits. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]

$87 Billion Is More Than DOUBLE The Total Amount The Government Spends On Homeland Security.

The U.S. spends about $36 billion on homeland security. Yet, Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) wrote "America will fall approximately $98.4 billion short of meeting critical emergency responder needs" for homeland security without a funding increase. [Source: Council on Foreign Relations]

If the War on Terror, or the War on Iraq are unneccessary, then who the hell is the Dept. of Homeland Defense supposed to be defending us from? What exactly do they need this money for, if the threats we are encountering in Iraq are just phantoms?

And doesn't this totally ignore the fact that the United States is selflessly providing an infrastructure for the Iraqi people, one from which they can hopefully someday live the kind of fat cat life that we do here in the United States? I'm not saying that I favor unrestrained spending on any policy, or that I believe homeland defense is adequately funded, but I do perceive this wonderful (read: retch inducing) dichotomy of liberals who believe that the United States doesn't spend enough money at home for (N.H.S., unemployment benefits, schools, name your cause), and who are aghast that we're trying to provide basic services like schools and school committees to some mud-population halfway around the world.

"Don't you understand it sucks here? Those people don't need our help!"

$87 Billion Is 87 Times The Amount The Federal Government Spends On After School Programs.

George W. Bush proposed a budget that reduces the $1 billion for after-school programs to $600 million -- cutting off about 475,000 children from the program. [Source: The Republican-dominated House Appropriations Committee]

$87 Billion Is More Than 10 Times What The Government Spends On All Environmental Protection.

The Bush administration requested just $7.6 billion for the entire Environmental Protection Agency. This included a 32 percent cut to water quality grants, a 6 percent reduction in enforcement staff, and a 50 percent cut to land acquisition and conservation. [Source: Natural Resources Defense Council]

There you go. In black and white. A few million of you will receive this letter. Please share the above with at least a half-dozen people today and tomorrow. I, like you, do not want to see another approval rating over 50%.

Half-dozen taken care of, you greedy selfserving windbag.

Canadians say the medical marijuana the government is selling is "unsuitable for human consumption". (Via Volokh).

If Terry McAuliffe is to be believed then I wouldn't be spending those dollars just yet. From today's episode of Crossfire:

CARLSON: Why were they good enough then, but not now?

MCAULIFFE: Well, they ruled the unconstitutionality after the election. The court has ruled. Now they're unconstitutional. So the court has ruled that.

It now will go up to the United States Supreme Court. I have no illusions. Sandra Day O'Connor, apparently, is out of the country. So Justice Scalia will hear this, who is the architect of Bush vs. Gore. So we have no illusions. We assume this is going ahead on October 7. We think that Scalia will stop this, like he did Bush vs. Gore. And we're going to have to deal with it accordingly.

Of all the things I thought I would never need to stand up for in my life, Jayson Blair had to be right near the top of the list.

I acknowledge all of the rotten things about Blair. He lied, cheated and forged his way through the New York Times. His actions were entirely reprehensible, so much so that Blair should be disqualified from all sorts of work, up to and including acting as co-pilot for Dick Dastardly in The Wacky Races.

Fast-forward to today's Monday Morning Quarterback column in which Peter King delivers the following diatribe (emphasis added):

And now some publishing company is going to hand this bum what I hear is well over $200,000 so he can spew some more of whatever it is he'll spew; any self-respecting human being should never find out what it is he writes, because you're a fool if you buy what this charlatans is selling.

****

All readers of this column, I will ask you only one favor over the course of this season: Promise me you won't buy this liar's load of crap.

Aren't you being just a tad bit personal, Peter? Isn't your rant just that much worse because you're introducing it in space designated for football? I don't doubt that there are time and place considerations which effect our reactions to certain speech. I'd expect to hear that kind of statement on any Bill Maher show, but from Peter King in his MMQB column, that speech is just excessively vicious, and not at all in an entertaining way.

It's a miracle! John Kerry showed up for work last week!

Maybe Chris Lahane (Kerry's communications director) told him on the way out, "Don't quit your day job."

Andrew Sullivan catches the beebers twice. Check it out here.

Via OxBlog.

Two intersting blogs listed on the 'Recently Updated Blogs' bar as I signed into blogger this morning:

This first one is absolutely for adults only, and entirely not work safe (NWS), because it's a blog about Porn! Honestly, who amongst us hasn't been looking for "comprehensive reviews and links to the porn and erotic sex blogs"?

The second blog proves that college life isn't quite the skinemax production we make it out to be. Welcom to the life of a real USC undergrad, aka Retarded USC Girl.

The adventures of the USC undergrad just serve to underline the argument from below. As a college student, the cycle of studying, homework and classes is academically challenging, yet the 4 month long pressure of getting good grades is a lot for most people to handle. College is worse than a fulltime job, Monday through Friday there is nothing that's ever left at the office, you are surrounded by studies all the time. Binge drinking and fornication just relieve the boredom and pressure of realizing there are about four assignments you haven't started yet, and won't have time to get to until you finish the last 9 things you're trying to juggle.

Tim Graham, no stranger to cheap shots, dispatched another in The Corner this morning:

2. Showing someone at the Post reads Romenesko, a feature on the sex columnist for the Georgetown University student newspaper. She's an aspiring Carrie Bradshaw for the Jesuit hookup joint. Julia Baugher is doing her best to be "hip" and sexually liberated, proclaiming "It's my opinion that if you're completely realistic about what you're getting out of the situation, there's absolutely no harm in a hookup. People have needs, right? I think the problem comes when people expect a relationship to come out of it." Isn't this just the kind of female mentality the single sex-crazed guy craves? Would you call it feminist?

Tim, you say that like it's a bad thing! Of course, Tim misses the entire essence of the argument by ignoring the following two facts from the Washington Post Piece. Ms. Baugher notes that (emphasis added):

...it wasn't until I took a year off from school in 2000 that I realized that contrary to my high school and college experience, in the real world, people actually date in the traditional sense -- a nonexclusive thing that involves going out and talking rather than just hooking up in a bar or at a party. I thought this was a great concept, and one that college students needed to learn, because they don't know how to date properly.

which, when combined with the following really paints the College picture:

You can meet people anywhere as long as you engage them -- before or after class, at the grocery store. I met one of my boyfriends while getting my summer parking sticker. I was open and friendly, we struck up a conversation, and he asked for my number. If, on the other hand, you're just looking for a hookup, everyone knows that anywhere with a high potential for inebriation is going to have a lot of that. This could mean 2 p.m. at Homecoming Tailgate or 2 a.m. at the Rhino Bar on M Street.

So no Tim, college isn't quite the den of sin that us "single sex-crazed guys" crave, but it's a pretty good facsimile. It's all about choices, as Ms. Baugher so wisely notes. If one chooses to participate in the culture of binge drinking and parties, there's a pretty good chance the phone's going to ring up with a booty call. It's just one of those lovely things that alcohol, being the cause of and solution to all of life's problems, does to people.

Is this feminist? I have a tough time answering no, but I don't want to say yes because I detect a definite twang of disdain in Tim's remarks. It's feminist in that women in college aren't restricting their behavior based upon someone else's preconceived notions of acceptable behavior. Is it feminist to suggest that every person should have the right to determine for themselves how they wish to conduct themselves socially and/or sexually? Maybe Tim would have been happy had the WaPo piece included advice on lessening the regret of the "walk of shame" the morning after?

BONUS CHEESECAKE: Julia Baugher is absolutely gorgeous, and you can find a large photo of her from the WaPo piece here.

Let's make this happen people! Lifted word for word from the Live Journal of a friend of mine:

Message: To all my friends,

I need your help. My friends' family runs a very inspiring camp called CAMP SUNSHINE - a retreat for children with life threatening diseases and their families.

New Balance is donating up to $25,000, $1.00 for every person who clicks on their logo at www.campsunshine.org. So far they have only 2600 clicks as the organization doesn't get a lot of media attention! They need 25,000 in two weeks to earn the $25,000k.

Please take a second and go to the site for more information on the camp and CLICK ON THE NEW BALANCE LOGO. There is no BS associated with it.

You can click on it once a day from any computer and pass it on.

Your moments of time will help bring lifelong memories to some very special children.

Thanks for reading this and thanks for clicking to make the world a better place! All we need in this world is love. Let's share ours.

Looks as if the recall might really be delayed.

If it does, then I'd make $56, thanks to information I got from Mickey Kaus.

ALSO: Kaus quotes a report that one of the judges who voted to delay the recall wrote that one of his rationales was that minorities would be too tired after work to know how to vote correctly with the old voting machines.

Go.

The real story of intelligence at the Gitmo.

The Philadelphia Daily News has some unanswered 9-11 questions.