Big Deal

Glib & Superficial's staff feline denies that this is a big deal, insisting that he (or any cat, for that matter) can do this any time he wants to. Having made that observation, he fell asleep.

Christmas is Offensive

The Associated Press reports from Chicago:

A public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story, the city says. Officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to reconsider using a movie studio as a sponsor because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians.

As usual, please note that there is no indication that any person actually has been "offended," or even has lodged a protective Notice of Anticipatory Intent to Take Offense. Of course, the reasonableness of any such hypothetical claim is not a factor.

We may have reached an important point of moral clarity: Christmas is per se offensive to almost everyone.

As we enter that joyous season when vaguely Christian-inspired activities originally associated with actual religious belief terrorize America, it is well to understand that this reaction is only a special case of the application of well-developed tenets of the Established Church of Fundamentalist Secular Orthodoxy.

First, any identifiable group is entitled to special consideration, and the imposition of its will on others, upon a claim of offense or perception of insufficient sensitivity on the part of another.

Second, Christians, men, and white people, while identifiable as groups, are not only ineligible to make such complaints, but are disabled from asserting merely equal rights. See the recent unexplained eviction of Christian groups from the campuses of Georgetown University and the University of Michigan, and the hysterical opposition of academic officials to statutes that would prohibit discrimination in college and law school admissions against white men.

Third, Jews are a special case. Jews are permitted to call attention to egregious antisemitic speech (such as that routinely spewed by Islamist clerics, Black Muslims, and the United Nations), and even violent conduct, and Officials of the Established Church have been directed to take notice, but nothing whatever is actually to be done. Moreover, after a decent interval (say, ten minutes) Important Experts are to convene a discussion of what the filthy Jews have done this time to provoke the peaceloving peoples of the world.

Fourth, any expression of "religious belief" is by definition hateful, offensive, and unfit for public display. For this purpose, Scientology, Wiccan, and all "belief traditions" of eastern origin are deemed not to be "religious," since everyone knows they're so ridiculous no one actually believes them. This principle is sometimes simplified as "Jews and Christians should shut the Hell up."

So be careful out there.

This message brought to you as a public service.

Christmas Gift Ideas

Shotgun. Clays. "PULL!" You know the drill.

Jeremy Clarkson explores variations on this theme. Except that he substitutes old cars for clay pigeons, and instead of a shotgun he uses . . . well, various devices that are sure to light up the face of that special fellow on Christmas morning:

Charlie Rangel for President

We understand that the Congressman has promised hearings to prove that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are idiots who couldn't get a job anywhere else. Such hearings would do terrible damage to Republicans in general and to the Bush administration in particular. They would establish the Democrats in the forefront of thoughtful, reality-based policy-making, to the detriment of their political opponents. For this reason, every effort should be made to discourage Mr. Rangel from holding such hearings.

Please, Charlie. Oh the Humanity! PLEASE CHARLIE, PLEASE don't throw us in the briar patch!

First They Came For The . . . . Oh, Screw It

"Educating people about the safest flogging techniques so they don't accidentally strike the kidneys is responsible behavior," said spokeswoman Susan Wright. "Basically, what they're doing is S&M 101."

That would be at Columbia University. No, really.

More from The New York Daily News.

'Tis the Season

"It's supposed to be the season of sharing and giving, but long lines at the stores and jammed parking lots can cause a lot of stress this time of year. So 'tis also the season of skyrocketing sales and explosive tempers.

"It's become such a problem that psychologists have even given it a name — "holiday rage."

"What was once annoying and then aggravating has now escalated to full-on anger. And the shopping season has just begun. From over-the-top, blinding Christmas lights to annoying relatives and all-out meltdowns, we've all have our moments around the holidays, when enough is enough."

More from ABC News.

Why We Believe Crap

According to the cover story in this week's Time magazine, silly Americans worry far too much about a long list of things.

For example, "we agonize over avian flu, which to date has killed precisely no one in the United States," and "We wring our hands over the mad cow pathogen that might be (but almost certainly isn't) in our hamburger."

On the other hand, searching the Time web site for "avian flu" yields 80 mentions in the last 12 months, while a search for "mad cow" directs your attention to, among others, an article entitled "Mad Cow: Are We Still Unprepared?" from the March 16 issue.

But you'll be pleased to learn that our dread of things that aren't realistic threats has nothing to do with being told -- day in and day out -- that they're likely to get us. Heaven Forfend!

Instead, the problem has something to do with evolution and our brains having been built for risk assessment out on the Serengeti Plain. Back then, I guess, people were so busy trying to avoid being on the menu for a large feline that they didn't pay any attention to Time magazine.

Jihadi Jills

What do Fatma An-Najar (the 64-year-old grandmother of 41, mother of 8, who on Thanksgiving Day went to the place where suicide bombers are rewarded), Katharine Jefferts Schori (the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, whose view is that there is no such place), Condoleezza Rice, and Scarlett Johansson (you know who they are) have in common?

They're the subject of Mark Steyn's column today.

The Presiding Bishop was asked by the New York Times if Episcopalians were interested in replenishing their ranks by having children:

"No," agreed Bishop Kate. "It's probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion."

Now, that may or may not be a great idea, but it's nothing to do with Christianity, only for eco-cultists like Al Gore. If Bishop Kate were an Episcogorian, a member of the Alglican Communion, an elder of the Church of Latter-Day Chads, this would be an unremarkable statement. But, even in their vigorous embrace of gay bishoprics and all the rest, I don't recall the Episcopalians formally embracing the strategy that worked out so swell for the Shakers and enshrining a disapproval of reproduction at the heart of their doctrine.

Oh, my.

Icosidodecahedron

According to Wikipedia:

An icosidodecahedron is a polyhedron with twenty triangular faces and twelve pentagonal faces. An icosidodecahedron has 30 identical vertices, with two triangles and two pentagons meeting at each, and 60 identical edges, each separating a triangle from a pentagon. As such it is one of the Archimedean solids and more particularly, one of the quasi-regular polyhedra.

And, oh yes, this one is origami. No, really.

MUCH more HERE.

Thanksgiving Day -- 1863

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Thanksgiving -- 2006 II: Good Eats

What would Thanksgiving be without turkey? Just another day for pizza with ham, pineapple and pepperoni. And what manly man hasn't dreamed of deep frying that turkey? Hot oil, open flame, potential third-degree burns -- Good Times. But who better to guide you through the process -- including construction of a turkey lowering device (you'll need a step ladder), than Alton Brown?

Don't miss Part II & Part III.

Thanksgiving Day -- 2006

Pumpkin pie, with its dry crust and heavy filling, has long been a challenge to some, and a bane to other, competitive eaters. The professional who downs 50 hot dogs for practice may be humbled by pie:

Some Jokes

There are some jokes that the listener either gets, or he doesn't. No amount of explaining can fill in the blanks.

Submitted for your consideration:



[UPDATE] Welcome relapsed catholics (what did he say?). We're not always this amusing. Sometimes we do things like THIS.

A Show of Hands, Please!

Raise your hand if you know what sort of speaker is "too controversial" to be heard on the campus of an Ivy League University. Let me help: It's neither a Jew, nor a person in uniform.

Time's up. Answer HERE, commentary HERE.

Isn't "diversity" a wonderful thing?

Genetically Modified, Perchance?

A SPICY sausage known as the Welsh Dragon will have to be renamed after trading standards’ officers warned the manufacturers that they could face prosecution because it does not contain dragon.
The sausages will now have to be labelled Welsh Dragon Pork Sausages to avoid any confusion among customers.

Jon Carthew, 45, who makes the sausages, said yesterday that he had not received any complaints about the absence of real dragon meat. He said: “I don’t think any of our customers believe that we use dragon meat in our sausages. We use the word because the dragon is synonymous with Wales.”

His company, the Black Mountains Smokery at Crickhowell, in Powys, turns out 200,000 sausages a year, including the Welsh Dragon, which is made with chili, leak and pork. A Powys County Council spokesman said: “The product was not sufficiently precise to inform a purchaser of the true nature of the food.”

From The Times, via Midwest Conservative Journal, your one-stop source for Episcopal Church Implosion news.

Big Love

National Review's Kate O'Beirne (just for the record, she's a Roman Catholic) observes:

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Governor Mitt Romney's great-grandfather had multiple wives and two great-great grandfathers had 10 wives each. The article allows that Romney "is a confirmed monogamist of nearly four decades and polygamy has been absent from his family going back two generations." While some might note the upside of generously sharing those handsome Romney genes in the past, current history is noteworthy. Should Mitt Romney join a 2008 race that included John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich and George Allen, the only guy in the GOP field with only one wife would be the Mormon.

Artistic Paper-Folding for World Peace?

Never mind. I misunderstood THIS story.

Go Public, Go Home, Go Mecca

According to published reports:

(2006-11-20) — According to a newly pre-released secret Pentagon document, the U.S. military is considering three options for dealing with the situation in Iraq, dubbed ‘Go Public, Go Home and Go Mecca.’

The unnamed Pentagon official in charge of leaking national security secrets to the Washington Post said it’s possible that the U.S. could adopt some combination of the three.

He summarized the strategy options as follows:

1. Go Public: Consistently leak top-secret Pentagon strategy deliberations to the news media as a way of neutralizing the unfair “element of surprise”, and of building trust by being more transparent with the enemy.

2. Go Home: Remove the only reason for terrorism by bringing all U.S. troops back home, and also allowing all U.S.-trained Iraqi troops to emigrate to the U.S.

3. Go Mecca: Deal “head on” with the heart of the conflict, by amending the U.S. Constitution to bring it into compliance with Islamic Sharia law.

Sounds Right

Associated Press reports:

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry insisted on Sunday his "botched joke" about President Bush's Iraq policy would not undermine a possible White House campaign in 2008.

We think he's probably right.

Silenced Knights

When this beautiful Saturday morning dawned, and the sun rose over the railroad bridge that spans George Street, just east of Old Queens, there were a list of things that were bound to occur, and make the day another remarkable triumph for Rutgers football:

First, Ohio State was to blow out Michigan, sinking Wolverine hopes for a trip to the BCS championship;

Second, Mississippi State would rise and upset 5th ranked Arkansas, giving the Razorbacks their second loss, and interrupting their trip to the SEC Championship game;

Third, Cal would knock off the terminally obnoxious USC Trojans (who do have the best cheerleaders in college football, by the way), tagging those wannabes with their second loss, and perhaps snatching the Pac 10 Championship into the bargain;

Fourth, seventh-ranked Rutgers would surely beat Cincinnati and, since Ohio State had beaten the Bearcats 30-7, it would be truly good when the Scarlet Knights shut them out, and scored 5 touchdowns to boot.

A glorious day for all Loyal Sons of Rutgers.

But now it’s late at night here on the east coast, and the sun has long since set over the spot where that old wooden bridge used to make a sharp right turn and take River Road across the Raritan and on into Piscataway.

The scores are final:

Ohio State 42
Michigan 39

Arkansas 28
Mississippi State 14

USC 23
California 9

Cincinnati 30
Rutgers 11

And so to sleep -- perchance to dream . . . .

In the Market for a New Car?

Jeremy Clarkson, the automotive writer for The Times (the real Times, you twit, the one in London) test drives a Prius:

Seems Like Old Times

When I was a kid -- say, circa 1957 -- I had a Roy Rogers & Dale Evans lunch box, a lot like this one. It's been a while since I trudged off to school with the King of the Cowboys in hand, and my own kids used brown paper bags. That way they could more easily eat the cookies, trade the juice, take a bite of the sandwich, throw away the fruit, and not have anything to carry home. So I've been sort of out of the lunchbox market for a while.

Imagine my surprise when I ran across this. Yes, your eyes do not deceive. A Gen-You-Ine Kurt Cobain lunch box:
But you may not quite have realized the worst of it. Hard as it may be to wrap your head around the concept of Roy and Kurt being somehow, in some meta sense, occupying the same place, think instead about Dale Evans and . . . .

. . . . well, you know.

Hat Tip to Rick Lee, whence we pilfered the pic.

What Game?

Michigan and Ohio State may be playing for the de facto national title this Saturday, but Rutgers will be playing (7:30 EST, ESPN) to remain unbeaten, and to continue its drive to carry ultimate complaining rights into next season.

R.I.P. Uncle Milty

Milton Friedman, warmly referred to as "Uncle Milty" in not a few of my economics classes at school, died today at age 94. He has been associated with both institutions of higher education represented by G&S authorship. His approach of "think about things carefully and don't be a crazy person" is used lamentably infrequently nowadays.

[UPDATE by Gentleman Farmer] It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Professor Friedman and his ideas. It is also difficult for those younger than a certain age to grasp just how controversial and out of the mainstream his ideas were at one time. Even 35 years ago, when I studied economics at Rutgers, it was made clear to us that many of the things we were taught were considered heretical at other schools. Part of the problem was that so many of his theories included a high proportion of common sense, and could be understood apart from the mathematics that demonstrated their truth to other economists.

How, for example, do individuals react to changes in their income? If someone gets a raise, how much of it does he spend, and how much does he save? If someone loses their job, do they quickly move back in with their parents, and sell their car and ride the bus? It seems obvious from personal experience that they don't. And while data clearly shows that higher income individuals save a higher proportion of their income (of course!) data also shows that increases and decreases in a person's income over time do not result in proportionate changes. This is because people make their spending (and therefore saving) decisions based not on how much they made this week, but based on how much they expect to make over longer periods of time, perhaps even over their lifetimes. This is not that complicated a concept, and fits with the personal experience of most people. Friedman won the Nobel Prize for explaining it.

Friedman also believed that he had put over a colossal boondoggle on the taxpayers of the State of New Jersey -- a fraud also perpetrated by your author:



One of the dumber things ever done by the Hired Hand was never going over to Friedman's office at the Hoover Institution and shaking his hand, despite spending four years in close proximity thereto.

Raise Your Hand If You're Surprised

Since we enthusiastically kill our children right up until the time they're born, surely no one is surprised that we should boldly take the next convenient step, and leave some of them to die after they've been born. So many very premature babies die anyway, and so many others develop all sorts of disabilities that make raising and caring for them so difficult, time consuming, expensive and, well, just so not-what-I-signed-up-for.

Reuters reports:

LONDON - Premature babies born before 22 weeks gestation should not be given intensive care treatment to keep them alive, according to a report released in Britain on Wednesday.

Despite medical advances in prolonging life, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics said the chances of an infant surviving after less than 22 weeks in the womb are very slim and that they often develop severe disabilities.

In guidelines issued to help doctors and parents make difficult decisions about the care of extremely premature infants, the report recommended parents of babies born after 23 should be consulted and have the final say in whether intensive care is given to their baby.

Refreshing, is it not, that parents are still to be consulted after 23 weeks, and left to make the decision as to whether to provide medical treatment or not.

Last week the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments in Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood, cases which present the question whether the Constitution of the United States (which, of course, never mentions abortion) prevents Congress from outlawing the practice of partially delivering a perfectly healthy baby, and then killing it by sucking its brain out.

This is a form of mass insanity that surely must run its course sooner or later, must it not?

Sigh . . . . . .

New face of the Democratic Party:


New face of the Republican Party:

More Election Fraud

For the second time, People Magazine has named George Clooney the "sexiest man alive" in a startling and questionable action, given that your humble and obedient servant has yet to be named even once. Obviously ballot tampering is suspected, and intimidation of voters likely.

Story HERE.

San Francisco Values

"We Americans have always been a religious people, a member of my staff tells me."

Here Come the Democrats!

New Senate Democratic leadership strides down the corridors of power.

Who's that twit looking on in the background?

Chow Mein

“Don’t they just have Chow Mein?”

“They have everything, I’m sure.”

I scowled; the neon sign in the window said CHOW MEIN. For some reason I thought that was all they had. The kitchen made a cubic ton once a week and sold it by the bucket. You’d walk in and say “half bucket,” there would be a clanking of machinery, and the horrid phlegmy rattle of the Mein splorging down the chute into your pail.

Who Else?

On The Banks

The oldest living Rutgers graduate sings the alma mater:



It neither rhymes nor scans when he sings it, either, so it's not just me.

Out of the Closet

It's time we made a clean breast of things and confessed our admiration for the ladies at go fug yourself ("fugly is the new pretty"). There is no trashy wannabe so obscure, no box office golden celebrity so powerful as to avoid the slashing fashion commentary of these clever girls.

For example: We take second place to none in our admiration of Scarlett Johansson. This recent outfit, however, was found provocative in ways not intended:

I'm stuck trying to figure out how Team Scarlett managed to find a dress again that gives her celebrated rack such an odd mushy mashed shape. To be clear: I am pro-cleavage, and hers is very lovely, but doesn't the cut of the dress make the ladies look, unbelievably, both droopy and perky? It's like they've been poorly mummified. They're being strapped down against her chest, yet also hoisted up near her neck, all the while both breasts are making hostile advances across the border of Armpit City. Is that even physically possible? What madness is this?

Ever so much more HERE.

"Pandemonium in Piscataway"

The Scarlet Knights put together the most important win in the history of the program last night, defeating #3 Louisville, 28-25, in Piscataway. You have probably heard about this by now. With Gentleman Farmer "at the end of an undersized soda straw" bandwidth-wise, I've been charged with bringing you today's post-game gloating, chest-thumping, and delusional BCS forecasting.

But first, let's hear what GF has to say on the matter:

Teel is really a freshman, and now has still lost only one game since he started for his high school team. Every week, the opposition concentrates on Rice & Leonard, and dare Teel to win the game. Before last night, opposing defenses weren't entirely successful. Last night Teel, Rice & Leonard won the game, with Rutgers able to put Louisville in the unenvieable position of having to guess which one of them would come at them at any particular time. Teel's stats were better than those of the much-touted (now) whathisname [Brohm] from Louisville.

Let's see about that:
Teel: 8-21, 189 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT. Brohm: 13-27, 163 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT.

Okay, neither guy really lit it up. But the key stat here, I'd say, is sacks - including the game-ending takedown of Brohm that preceded the field getting rushed, the RU defense sacked Brohm 5 times, resulting in combined losses of 29 yards. Indeed, it was the Rutgers defense (unsurprisingly, if you've been following these guys all year) that was the key to victory on Thursday. RU held the Cardinals to 303 yards of offense, the fewest UL has had since 2003.

Rutgers is now 9-0, and 4-0 in the Big East, with games left against Cincinnati, Syracuse, and #10 West Virginia (Dec. 2). Win out, and they've got themselves a BCS berth. A National Championship Game invitation ain't out of the question, but it requires the Wolverines to play like kittens at Ohio State (Nov. 18), and some fancy footwork by the one-loss teams in between RU and OSU.

No question, this is the best season Rutgers has ever had. Ray Rice for Heisman.

By the way, Stanford extended its perfect season to 0-9, and their winless streak to 11 games, with a 42-0 loss at home to USC last Saturday. Only 3 more games to go for them too!

Two Weeks 'til Thanksgiving. How Will YOUR Bird Be Flavored?

Hopefully with Season Shot. From the horse's mouth:

Season Shot is made of tightly packed seasoning bound by a fully biodegradable food product. The seasoning is actually injected into the bird on impact seasoning the meat from the inside out. When the bird is cooked the seasoning pellets melt into the meat spreading the flavor to the entire bird. Forget worrying about shot breaking your teeth and start wondering about which flavor shot to use!

You might read the above and ask, "IMPACT?!?! What impact?" That would be the impact of the shell, full of seasoning, that you've fired from your shotgun. At your turkey. Or, one presumes, anything else you'd like to flavor.

Lock and load, chefs.

Election Candids, This Time For Real

Rick Santorum's son tells the world how he feels about his father's 20-point shellacking:

Big Time Football?

The Big Ten. The SEC. The Pac 10. Texas. Oklahoma. Michigan. Ohio State. USC. Penn State. Notre Dame. Alabama. UCLA. Florida. Auburn.

West Virginia? Louisville? Rutgers? The Big East?

Tonight, at 7:45 (eastern time) on ESPN, we’ll find out at least a little more when Louisville travels to New Brunswick. Is either team for real? Can Mike Teel complete passes when he needs to, and limit the receivers to guys on his own team?

We shall see.


UPDATE (HH, just about gametime): James Gandolfini has joined Gentleman Farmer among the ranks of fair-weather alumni, but he gets a sideline pass:

Preach It, Sister!

Virginia Postrel:

How about a loophole-closing, rate-flattening 1986-style tax reform from the new Congress? It would be a lobbyist nightmare, and a repudiation of the Clinton administration's zillions of tax credits for good behavior (extended by the Bushies). But if I squint really hard I can see it happening. Charles Schumer is talking the right way: "I don't think we want taxes to move higher at all; the kinds of things we're talking about easily funded about rearranging federal priorities making sure that some of the shelters are closed -- the offshore shelters and things like that. But the Democrats are against increasing taxes. We want to become more fiscally responsible."

Just About Right III

We managed to (I have no idea how!) somehow forget the last part of the WaPo editorial just posted:

After six years of belligerent partisanship, the president would do well to change course dramatically in his final two years. In this, Mr. Bush has a good role model: Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, who managed to work across party lines to achieve results. Granted, Democrats in Congress aren't the same as Democrats in Texas, but the new congressional Democrats share a common interest with the president in demonstrating an ability to overcome bickering to achieve results. There's opportunity on issues ranging from immigration and climate change to entitlement reform and education.

As for Iraq, the president and his party need to be mindful of the passionate voter discontent with the war. Some Democratic candidates advocated prompt withdrawal, which we believe would be perilous to U.S. and Iraqi interests, but many were pressing for adjustment, not the "cut and run" of Mr. Bush's caricature. The president's lofty campaign rhetoric is bearing decreasing resemblance to the grim reality in Iraq. With the election over, he needs to show more flexibility and deftness to address the deteriorating situation.

Yeah, sounds about right.

Just About Right II

The Washington Post:

SIX YEARS OF nearly unbroken one-party rule have not been healthy for the country. The apparent Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives yesterday is a good thing. Republicans won control of the House in 1994 promising a change from Washington business as usual. Instead, entrenched by gerrymandered redistricting into what they envisioned would be a permanent majority, Republicans slid toward lax oversight, unbridled partisanship and rampant sleaziness, if not outright corruption. Voters yesterday expressed their anger at President Bush and their frustration with the war in Iraq, as well as their disgust with the arrogant misbehavior of House Republicans. Though we regret the loss of some of the most talented Republican moderates, the GOP deserved to lose its majority.

Less clear is that Democrats deserved to win -- or that they would have done so absent Republican missteps. The Democrats won the House, and, as of this writing, at least narrowed the GOP majority in the Senate, but not because voters necessarily agreed with their program. How many voters, we wonder, could name even one of the Democrats' vaunted "Six for '06" legislative proposals? As they prepare to wield power, Democrats don't have capital from voters; at most, they enjoy a line of credit.

Just About Right

The best analysis of the election results comes from Cliff May at National Review Online:

The Democrats said: “Had enough?”

The Republicans said: “It could be worse!”

The voters said: “Let’s find out.”

Advance Election Results

Nancy Pelosi reacts to the news that Rick Santorum has been reelected:

Election Day - 2006

This is What Panic Looks Like

The fundamental weakness of the Democratic Party is that they really cannot understand why anyone would vote gainst them. It seems so obvious to them. If you think otherwise, there's something wrong with you.

In this new ad, Ned Lamont makes it clear that Joe Lieberman is crazy, and anyone who would vote for him must be nuts:

I'm not sure this is the way I'd go if I were trying to sway undecided voters late in the campaign. They've been thinking that they might vote for Joe, and now Lamont comes by to tell them that they're insane to even harbor the notion.

Damned Special Interest Groups

More Negative Ads

It's About Time

With characteristic wit and irrefutable analysis, Andrew Sullivan mops the floor with a defenseless Richard John Neuhaus. I wish I could write like that.

"Look, Mommy, a Sinner!"

So Mike Jones, the gay male prostitute and drug dealer who has accused Reverend Ted Haggard of serial sexual liaisons in a Denver hotel room, has only the best of motives for coming forward:

You know, I want to tell him that I'm really sorry that he's in the position that he's in. You know, what this proves is we're all human. We all are sinners, but when you are in a position of authority and a role model for millions of people, you really need to practice what you preach.

To your humble and obedient servant, a trial attorney for 30 years, Jones' accusations, and Haggard's progression from denial, to elaborate hyper-specific denial, to partial admission, and so on, suggests that the prostitute is telling something very close to the truth. It is very sad for Haggard's family and his congregation.

But the interesting question is why this is so fascinating to the media. The New York Times has a teaser on its front page, urging you inside for the details. ("This way to the dog-faced boy!") It's on page 2 of the more discrete Washington Post.

The answer, as clearly understood by Mr. Jones, is hypocrisy. Mr. Jones certainly doesn't think that there's anything wrong with gay sex, or even pay-to-play gay sex. Neither does the Washington Post. And, in all likelihood, the editorial board of the New York Times thinks gay sex is superior to that other kind, and paying for it ever so much more honest than the degrading exploitation that transpires daily in the bourgeois institution of marriage. So none of these players is interested in pointing a finger and saying, "Gay sex is wrong, and Reverend Haggard's actions are wrong. He is to be condemned."

The charge of hypocrisy is the last refuge of the modern morality-free busybody. Even those who themselves believe nothing can engage in the sport of criticizing those who do when the latter fail to live up to their own principles. It is an odd and weak complaint: "We don't think you did anything wrong, but you think you did, so we're outraged."

It's the moral equivalent of the special prosecutor, frustrated in his attempt to turn up evidence of the crimes he was charged to investigate and prosecute, who consoles himself and his political supporters by indicting someone for obstruction of justice. Everyone feels much better.

But the real source of energy and interest is yet one more step removed. At base is a claim that there must be something wrong with all these Christians -- no, there must be something wrong with Christianity itself -- if even its most energetic and public supporters, promoters, and believers can't live up to the moral code they fling at the rest of us.

This may work with those already both morally bankrupt and indignantly ignorant of what Christians actually believe. But it strikes no known chord with Christians themselves: We already know all about this. While few of us are so prominently on public view or so florid in our daily sins as Reverend Haggard, every one of us fails every day to live up to the standard that has been set for us.

Every Christian. Every day. This is really old.

We were warned twenty centuries ago, when Paul wrote:

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice.

And then:

Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

Give me a call when you get to that question, because I've got Good News for you.

Here's lookin' at you, kid.

Kathy Shaidle, on the phenomenon of "progressives" unable to provide a reference to any evangelical more recent than Jerry Falwell: "It's like when bad impressionists imitate other Humphrey Bogart impersonators rather than Bogart himself."

The Other Ten Percent

By Scott Adams.

New York Times:Iraq was "on the verge of building an atom bomb."

The New York Times is reporting that, prior to the American invasion, Saddam Hussein's scientists were months away from constructing an atomic weapon. Story in this morning's paper, online HERE.

The information was apparently in the large cache of captured Iraqi documents that were put online:

Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.

But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.

Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.”

While the Times appears to be trying to spin this story as showing some mistake by the Bush administration, it would seem to put an end to the mantra of the Times and its friends that the war was a mistake from the beginning, inasmuch as no weapons of mass destruction had been located. How perfect that the Times should find them.

Jim Geraghty at NRO:

I think the Times editors are counting on this being spun as a "Boy, did Bush screw up" meme; the problem is, to do it, they have to knock down the "there was no threat in Iraq" meme, once and for all. Because obviously, Saddam could have sold this information to anybody, any other state, or any well-funded terrorist group that had publicly pledged to kill millions of Americans and had expressed interest in nuclear arms. You know, like, oh... al-Qaeda.

The New York Times just tore the heart out of the antiwar argument, and they are apparently completely oblivous to it.

The antiwar crowd is going to have to argue that the information somehow wasn't dangerous in the hands of Saddam Hussein, but was dangerous posted on the Internet. It doesn't work. It can't be both no threat to America and yet also somehow a threat to America once it's in the hands of Iran. Game, set, and match.

[UPDATE - 10:00 a.m.] Mark Levin:

So, the New York Times reports on its front page today that Saddam Hussein had the necessary information and expertise to build nuclear weapons as far back as pre-1991, and that the information is so damning even now that posting it on a public website fifteen years later could assist other regimes, including Iran, in building such weapons.

The Times has just confirmed two things: 1. President Bush was right when he said that Hussein was a threat to the world because, among other things, he would continue to pursue weapons of mass destruction; and 2. congressional Republicans were right in demanding a more aggressive and thorough effort by the Pentagon to interpret the enormous number of documents captured from the Iraqi regime.

The Times's emphasis on "Republicans" demanding the release of these documents and the administration's posting them on a public website was an obvious attempt by the newspaper to cause some kind of eleventh-hour Republican embarrassment. The Times had hoped the weekend before the election would be spent debating the handling of this information rather than its existence and substance. But it was wrong. This is a stunning find that confirms a primary basis for the president ordering the military to remove Hussein from power. This finding also strikes a blow to the Democrat mantra that the president lied to get us into the war with Iraq.

The Democrats and their partners in the liberal media demand to know what the president plans to do to stop Iran and North Korea from securing nuclear weapons. Yet, when he did, in fact, stop Iraq from getting those same weapons, he is loudly denounced for it.

[UPDATE - 10:20]The unhinged left is reacting oddly.

Duncan Black thinks the story is somehow funny: "This is even funnier than it sounds . . . ." I'm not sure I understand any take that would make the story "funny," either "funny odd" or "funny ha ha." Is there some other kind of funny known only to the illuminati?

Daily Kos is sticking with the party line: "Bush Helped Iran Get Nukes!" They seem oblivous to the fact that if these documents would advance Iran's nuclear program (which "everyone knows" is terribly dangerous, and about which BushHitler has done nothing, nothing, nothing) then they also establish that Saddam Hussein's program was far more dangerous, just as Mr. Bush has argued all along. Glad to have the Kossacks on board.

[UPDATE - 11:55] Professor Reynolds:

Judging from some of the delighted emails I'm getting, I need to warn people not to get too carried away -- this doesn't say that Saddam would have had a bomb in 2004. But it does say that he had all the knowledge needed to have a bomb in short order. And as we know he was looking to reconstitute his program once sanctions were ended -- and that sanctions were breaking down in 2003 -- that's pretty significant. However, perhaps even more significant, given that we knew most of the above already, is that the NYT apparently regards the documents that bloggers have been translating for months as reliable, which means that reports of Iraqi intelligence's relations with Osama bin Laden, and "friendly" Western press agencies, are presumably also reliable.

Go Air Force!

Meet Kelly George, who became Miss Arkansas USA on October 28. This would hardly be remarkable, but for the fact that Ms. George is also Air Force Second Lieutenant Kelly George, deputy chief of Public Affairs for the 314th Airlift Wing.

What does the Air Force think of all this? Well, I got the picture from a web site that starts out "www.af.mil." More HERE.

But Doctor . . . .

From Sigmund, Carl and Alfred:

Bono, the lead singer of the band U2 is famous throughout the entertainment industry for being more than just a little self-righteous.

While playing a U2 concert in Glasgow, Scotland, Bono asked the audience for total silence, and to light the small candle each concert goer was given at the gate.

In that outdoor venue, illuminated by the soft, gentle and flickering light of tens of thousands small candles and in total silence, Bono slowly started to clap his hands.

Every few seconds, Bono would clap his hands.

As the large audience listened in total silence, Bono put his lips to the microphone and whispered breathlessly: "Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies."

From the silence, emerged a strong and steady, if somewhat somewhat tipsy voice, with a broad Scottish accent that bellowed:

"Well then, quit clapping your hands, you bleedin' idiot!"

Is it live?

Via Michelle Malkin, where the consensus seems to be that it's real.

October Surprise!

Just in under the wire, Senator John Kerry explains what he means by "support the troops."



And his explanation and non-apology provides the last bit of information necessary for a firm diagnosis of acute Bush Derangement Syndrome:

If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.

I don't think Kerry meant to insult the troops. I think we have another example of a rich liberal Democrat who's so divorced from the universe in which the rest of us live that he has no idea what he sounds like to real people.

I'm with Jonah Goldberg:

My own hunch — echoed by many readers — is that Kerry's just a Vietnam-era fossil who thinks the old nostrums about the draft and the underprivileged still apply. That's the language he's comfortable with. That's the tradition he comes from. And that's the sort of rhetoric that comes naturally to him. He's hardly alone in perpetuating the Vietnam paradigm, but he seems uniquely gifted at sounding like a moron when he does. A lot of Kerry supporters never really understood why a "war hero" didn't win more support from military folks. The simple fact was that most military folks saw him as part of the anti-war tradition. And his service notwithstanding, that's the only reason anybody ever heard of him. So when he tried to claim credit for fighting in a war he called a war-crime, most military types saw through it as rank opportunism.

I don't think Kerry meant to insult America's military (which doesn't mean he didn't insult them). What he doesn't realize is that his reflexive Vietnam era talking points get him into trouble because — this just in — this isn't the Vietnam era. The more you think about it, the more Kerry represents almost everything wrong with the Democratic Party.

So remember. When you vote next week, you have a real choice. You can either pick the President's party -- warts and all -- or you can pick the party of the morons who decided that John Kerry should be the President of the United States.