Coyote Ugly turns 20

"Her business plan at the time was shockingly simple: 'Beautiful women and booze,' Lovell recalled in an interview. 'It seemed like the most obvious way in the world to make money.'"

Forgive us for being struck by the phrase "beautiful women and booze," which calls up a particular constellation of memories if you're under 30, but has quite a different feel if you're, say, over 50.

If you just believe in yourself . . . .

. . . . and other lies your parents told you.

Meet Regis Giles

She blogs at "Girls Just Wanna Have Guns," where you can learn what an "assault rifle" is -- and is not.

The Voice of the People

According to a poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, only 44% of persons aged 18 to 29 know what the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade was actually about. But asked if they believed the Court should overturn the case, 68% said no. That is, a goodly number of young people don't know what the case is about, but they're quite sure it shouldn't be overturned.

It's remarkable the number of people who have very strong opinions about things they know nothing about, or even about things they can't possibly have an opinion about.

Earl Weaver (August 14, 1930 - January 19, 2003)

Iz bigger on inside . . . . .

Brazilian deforestation causing extinction of another species

Do we want our children to live in a world of reduced biodiversity?  I don't think so. We're slaughtering the genus pthirus.  Thank heaven there's a White House Petition.

A. A. Milne (January 18, 1882 -- January 31, 1956)

"To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring is beneath all adult dignity."

Associated Press reports:

President Barack Obama is featuring eight Americans as "citizen co-chairs" of his inauguration, a new role created to highlight his first-term accomplishments with examples of lives that have either been improved by his actions or inspired his presidency.

The honorees announced Thursday include a woman with a brain tumor who no longer is denied health care for a pre-existing condition; an autoworker who got her job back after the General Motors bailout; and a gay pilot-in-training kicked out of the Air Force before the president repealed the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

From his cold, dead hands: Meet Chuck Hicks

"The Klan would drive through our neighborhood shooting at us, shooting into our homes," recalled Hicks, 66, who grew up in Bogalusa, La., and has been a civil rights activist in the District for more than 35 years. "The black men in the community wouldn’t stand for it. You shoot at us, we shoot back at you. I’m convinced that without our guns, my family and many other black people would not be alive today."

Read the whole thing.

Our first task: Caring for our children

Study Suggests Lower Mortality for the "Overweight."

No less than The New York Times reports:

The report on nearly three million people found that those whose B.M.I. ranked them as overweight had less risk of dying than people of normal weight. And while obese people had a greater mortality risk over all, those at the lowest obesity level (B.M.I. of 30 to 34.9) were not more likely to die than normal-weight people.

The report, although not the first to suggest this relationship between B.M.I. and mortality, is by far the largest and most carefully done, analyzing nearly 100 studies, experts said.

This might impact policy, if "nutrition" policy were about health, instead of about telling other people what to do.

When seconds count, the police are minutes away

The Guardian reports:

Hundreds of women in Delhi have applied for gun licences following the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman by six men in a bus in the city last month. The news underlines the widespread sense of insecurity in the city, deep before the incident and deeper now, and the lack of faith in law enforcement agencies.