Merry Fitzmas everyone!
Fundamentally, its a sad occasion, one not worth celebrating, but this blog was very early with being upset and outraged over the actions causing the indictments. This administration was responsible for the deliberate outing of a CIA operative's identity for political reasons and the fundamental pattern of misleading and misrepresenting the case to war. Given the evil behind these actions and their resulting consequences, the deaths of thousands of people, I think we have every right to be happy that at least some of these shit heads got brought to justice today. - posted by alex @ 1:41 PM
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Jackass of the Day
We will continue with the shared, bipartisan awards. Worried that apparent allegery sufferers are actually amateur meth-makers, Sens. Talent (R-OK) and Feinstein (D-CA) plan to introduce federal legislation to monitor, record, and restrict the use of medicine for the common cold and allergies.

If they have their way, that stuff all goes behind the counter, and folks with the sniffles will have to produce ID and register to gain pharmaceutical relief. Nevermind that significant meth labs don't bother with cold medicine -- that's no reason not to bother the allergic and the sick.

The Cato Institute has more on this latest outrage in the drug war.

Sen. Feinstein, you're a jackass!
Sen. Talent, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 8:43 PM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's award is shared. Or, if you prefer, you may consider each to have a whole week of being an honored Jackass, due to the two-week gap in posting.

In today's New York Times, Sens. Schumer (D-NY) and Graham (R-SC) have published a work of profound economic ignorance. In fact, I'm going to save this op-ed to use as a future problem set for an undergraduate international economics course. "Please read the following op-ed apparently written by two US Senators. Identify all grossly stupid statements. Provide correct economic analysis in place of their errors. Bonus points for identifying correct analysis that undermines the Senators' position."

Here are some excerpts from Will It Take a Tariff to Free the Yuan?:

While our efforts to pressure China to change have been called protectionist, nothing could be further from the truth. Pushing China to reform is the free trade position. Those who favor the status quo are the real protectionists; they are protecting China.

Remember, a major tenet of free trade is that currencies need to be free to float in value against other currencies. When that happens, the free market self-corrects in the face of trade imbalances.

Furthermore, pegging a major trading country's currency to another country's, as China does with the dollar, throws the world's trading system out of balance.

If China were simply a developing country that needed time to adjust to free trade, we could be more patient. But China is already a trading giant - one whose political leadership, against the advice of its own Finance Ministry, seems more interested in accumulating wealth and maximizing exports than in competing fairly.

Will someone please explain to these Senators that we can have job losses but welfare gains? Yes, this seems like a tall order for a politician, but it shouldn't be too tough to understand in the right model. If China, say, wants to give us junky toys for free, sure we'll lose jobs in the junky toy industry. But we'll have a bunch of free junky toys, and we can reallocate our labor and capital out of the junky toy industry, leaving us unambiguously better off.

Okay, let's go with simpler concepts. Will someone please let these guys know that exchange rate adjustments are an important way for adjustments to occur, but that there are other prices too? Let's say it slowly: the real interest rate, and the domestic price level.

Chuck Schumer, you're a jackass!
Lindsey Graham, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 1:45 AM
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Jackass of the Day
We're taking care of another past due target today, this time courtesy of Michael Malcolm's away message:

"Using leftover embryos from fertility clinics amounts to the dismemberment of living, distinct human beings because the embryos are destroyed during the research."
-Tom DeLay

How is it even physically possible to be this ignorant and stupid? Is the term "leftover" not in Mr. DeLay's vocabulary? If they don't use the leftover embryos, they're going into a dumpster. DeLay should limit his remarks to the few fields that he's actually an expert in -- namely, lying, slander, and stealing money. Maybe if we told him that we'd give all the embryos a little feeding tube and call them "Terri," and that God rang us up on the phone to say it was OK, he'd finally shut the hell up.

I'll add that Tom DeLay is also an expert in bug and pest control. So if we were going to spray them with Raid, Tom DeLay would be good to consult.

I will also add: Tom DeLay, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 1:15 PM
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Jackass of the Day
After last edition's note on Bill Frist's taking Tony Perkins too seriously, I realized we hadn't yet given Tony Perkins his own day. Shameful. Especially since Tony Perkins has been back in the news recently, with idiocy of which only the Family Research Council is capable.

Via Volokh, we hear that Tony Perkins' FRC opposes the soon-to-be-approved vaccine against the sexually transmitted HPV virus. The virus is estimated to be responsible for millions of future cases of cervical cancer among women.

"Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex," an FRC spokesperson says.

Tony Perkins, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 11:48 AM
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Jackass of the Day
We now return to our usual domestic Republican embarassments. The Carpetbagger Report informs us:

Why would anyone contribute $5,000 to a campaign that ended two years ago, to a candidate who finished a distant fourth? It makes more sense when the donor is Bill Frist and the candidate is Family Research Council President Tony Perkins...

I can appreciate that Frist is desperate to rally religious right support for his Senate agenda (and his 2008 presidential campaign), but donating $5,000 to a campaign that doesn’t exist just to curry favor with a far-right group is bound to look pretty bad.

For that matter, maybe Frist could elaborate a bit on why, exactly, he’d offer such generous financial support to Perkins’ long-finished campaign. After all, this is the same Perkins who paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list and later tried to hide the payment from the Federal Election Commission

It’s also the same Perkins who blamed MTV for the Abu Ghraib scandal, compared Thomas Jefferson’s wall of separation between church and state to the communists’ Berlin Wall, and argued that federal judges who disagree with him pose “a greater threat to representative government” than “terrorist groups.”

Sounds exactly like the kind of guy who should get $5,000 checks from the Senate Majority Leader, right?

Bill Frist, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 2:15 AM
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Midwest Jihad
Iowahawk puts the Afghan riots in humorous perspective:

Newsweek Lutefisk Story Sparks Fury Across Volatile Midwest

Decorah, IA - The debris-strewn streets of this remote Midwestern hamlet remain under a tense 24-hour curfew tonight, following weekend demonstrations by rock- and figurine-throwing Lutheran farm wives that left over 200 people injured and leveled the Whippy Dip dairy freeze. The rioting appeared to be prompted, in part, by a report in Newsweek magazine claiming military guards at Spirit Lake’s notorious Okoboji internment center had flushed lutefisk down prison toilets...

Whether the violence was triggered by Newsweek’s report of lutefisk desecration or frustration over chronic shortages of Beanie Babies and Old Style, one thing seems certain – occupying U.S. troops face a steep road to reestablish trust in this tinderbox of ancient hatreds and delicious dairy products. Some analysts say the latest outbreak represents the most vexing challenge to US strategy since its invasion the region three years ago.

“It could be months before we get the area back under control,” said Brigadier Gen. Glen Hastings of the US Army’s Southern Minnesota Command. “We’re hoping the tractor pull and swap meet seasons will help calm down some of the violent elements.”
...
In the wake of the incident, American military spokespeople have taken pains to defend handling of prisoners at Okoboji. A series of new guidelines instruct guards to “respect the rituals and traditions of our valued Lutheran prison guests,” including “dietary needs, Wednesday Nite Bingo, and twice daily viewing of Wheel of Fortune.”

“It is important that we remember that Lutheranism is a religion of peace,” said Army spokesman Maj. Richard Lehrman. “And we need to remember to avoid insensitive behavior and remarks that will cause these peaceful Lutherans to go on another bloody killing rampage.”...

hat tip: lgf - posted by Marc @ 12:20 AM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's Jackass comes from the Much Ado About Newsweek mess, but I'm a bit sympathetic to Newsweek: sometimes mistakes happen, and they seem to have handled the issue promptly and responsibly.

Now let's look at those who aren't responsible. Well, you'd think Afghanistan would have enough issues, what with the anti-American rioting and looting that left many people dead. But hey, irresponsible riots happen here in America too.

But it gets worse; AP has Afghan presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin's remarks:

"[W]e feel angered at the way this story has been handled," Ludin told a news conference Tuesday. "It's only fair to say at this stage that Newsweek can be held responsible for the damages caused by their story."
...
Afghans' strong feelings about Guantanamo "also provided a reason for the enemies of Afghanistan and for those who are keen to cause destruction in Afghanistan to ... cause the riots," Ludin said.

Neat. It is actually Newsweek and the "enemies of Afghanistan" which are responsible for the riots, in Afghanistan, where many Afghanis rioted, even attacking relief agencies.

Jawed Ludin and Government of Afghanistan, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 12:09 AM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's Jackass comes via the Washington Post editorial page, which condemns the House's recently-passed "Gangbusters" bill. As the Washington Post notes, "The bill's definition of gang activity represents an unwarranted federalization of local crime," by federalizing virtually all gang-related offenses.

On the website of the chief sponsor of the bill, Randy Forbes (R-VA), explains: "Why is this necessary?" The answer is a lot of who shot john about gang violence being bad.

Congressman Forbes is also apparently a member of the Judicial Activism Working Group. Well, hopefully some "activist" judge will tell him later that there's got to be a federal interest. Like that activist judge Scalia did, in the Lopez decision. You can't just go off federalizing any crime under the sun.

Randy Forbes, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 3:29 AM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's Jackass also comes thanks to a WorldNetDaily article. A St. Lucie county administrative law judge, J.D. Parrish, recently recommended that a high school English teacher (a former Teacher of the Year) be fired over a four-letter-word quiz.

They're basically cute riddles and thinking exercises:

One question read: "What is a four-letter word that ends in K and means the same as intercourse?" Hint: You do it all the time, especially when you shouldn't, except when your parents ask what you did in school." The answer, according to Littrell, is "talk."

The whole article is really worth a read.

And J.D. Parrish, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 12:24 AM
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Jackass of the Day
Looks like wingnut central at WorldNetDaily is an excellent source for JD material. Putting the nut in wingnut, today's Jackass is Pat Buchanan. Mr. Buchanan now opines that World War II really wasn't worth it.

Heeding the call not to forget Poland, Buchanan observes that since the war got started over Poland, but Poland wound up getting lost to Stalin, not much was accomplished. Many readers will probably not be surprised that Pat Buchanan wasn't too bothered by the whole fascism thing.

Pat Buchanan, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 11:01 PM
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Jackass of the Day
With hat tip to LGF, today's jackass is The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Their semi-official English-language daily Arab News published the following cartoon:



LGF commented:

Please note: on September 11, 2001, Saudi citizens hoped to create the exact scenario you see above. Apparently, that hope has not died.

I add: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 9:33 PM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's Jackass is state Rep. Gerald Allen (R) of Alabama. Andrew Sullivan informs us that Poliscifi Blog reports on the even broader scope of Allen's idiocy.

Initially, Allen made the news for moving to ban any works written by gays or about gays from public and university libraries. Since book burnings had been tainted by the Nazis, Rep. Allen had this instruction: "Dig a hole, and dump them in it." Book burials.

But it turns out that the law is not just about Oscar Wilde. Poliscifi actually looks at Alabama's backward laws, and reports that the law is really

a law to ban gay authors and characters, unmarried characters who suggest that oral sex may be enjoyable, and male characters who have ever decieved women in order to sleep with them.

This post also has a suggested soundtrack. Neil Young's Alabama, which closes with the lyrics:

What are you doing Alabama?
You got the rest of the union to help you along
What's going wrong?

Gerald Allen, you're a Jackass! - posted by Marc @ 11:29 PM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's Jackass is Sheriff Carson Smith of Pender County, North Carolina. He recently decided to start enforcing a 200 year-old anti-cohabitation law. First victim: a 40-year old dispatch operator who was told to either marry her boyfriend, move out, or quit her job.

Carson Smith, you're a Jackass! - posted by Marc @ 2:02 AM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's Jackass is Mayor Don Fox of Lebanon, TN, for using his mayoral office to act as a chief Christian prayer leader, of sort.

Here's a paragraph from the news announcement on the mayor's official website:

Let us defeat the apathy of the past and the forces of evil of today by standing straight and tall as our nation’s forefathers and those followers of Christ throughout the ages did. Let us call upon the Lord together by gathering on the National Day of Prayer May 5, 2005 at 6:00PM. Let us show those who depend on us that God is in Control by showing them that the greatest and second commandments rule our lives. Let it be evident by our words and deeds and our standing and praying together in unison that we do “love Him with all of our soul, heart, and mind and that we do love our neighbors as ourselves. We do this when we, regardless of religion, sing and pray together calling upon God to intervene and forgive our sin and heal our land. For one hour, surely we can leave the signs on the buildings and come together as Christians, showing the world that we love the Lord enough to leave our leisure to openly, and in unity, praise God in prayer and song.

Don Fox, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 7:19 PM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's Jackass is Congressman James Sensenbrenner III (R-WI). Mr. Sensenbrenner has previously been a jackass for suggesting that we enforce broadcast indecency rules through the criminal process, and that we extend the censorship regime to cable and premium networks as well.

Now, Ezra Klein informs us that Sensenbrenner, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, has been manipulating Democratic amendments in the record to pretend that they are designed for the benefit of "sexual predators."

The House Judiciary Committee, discussing the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, considered various Democrat amendments. One might think, say, that if an underage girl takes a Greyhound to another state to get an abortion, you wouldn't want to hold the bus driver criminally liable for this stuff. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) thought so.

Think Progress has a list where Sensenbrenner played games like this multiple times:

Original Amendment: A Scott amendment to exempt cab drivers, bus drivers and others in the business transportation profession from the criminal provisions in the bill.

Sensenbrenner’s Translation: Mr. Scott offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution if they are taxicab drivers, bus drivers, or others in the business of professional transport.

Jim Sensenbrenner, you're a Jackass! - posted by Marc @ 6:33 AM
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"The Crusaders"
Rolling Stone has an excellent article detailing how crazed, influential, and scary the evangelical right is today.

Link - posted by Marc @ 3:48 AM
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More Bolton News
Yeah, John Bolton is a sleeze. - posted by Marc @ 5:53 PM
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Theocon Culture
Thomas Sowell recently wrote an interesting article for the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page. It seems that blacks had the misfortune of not just being enslaved, but enslaved by Southern rednecks. The lasting harm of this is that black culture was substantially influenced by the inferior Southern culture, which was more prone to violence, and less educated and comparatively incapable of innovation.

Sowell concludes that this redneck culture is awfully harmful to the black community, and ought not be embraced.

Sure. Let's extend that point to the nation at large, too. No Southern Rednecks in charge. - posted by Marc @ 5:24 PM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's Jackass is Pat Robertson. Pat Robertson has many interesting jackass facets, but the reason he is today's Jackass is for saying that our judges are scarier than Al Qaeda, and reaffirming that "Yes, I really believe that."

Pat Robertson, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 2:20 AM
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The Rise of the Christian Fascists
Horrifying article here about how one North Carolina Church kicked out several members and excommunicated them because they .... were Democrats. Some of them weren't even Democrats, they were Republicans who were related to Democrats. According to this minister, they therefore supported homosexuality and abortion and thus god deemed that they must be kicked out of the church.
All of this echoes a theme we see in the rise of the megachurches, the religious right, and others. That is they are obsessed with a brand of religion which is no longer focused on being a good person, doing good works, on the whole "Love" side of the religious message. There's a great quote in the current issue of Harper's from one of the leaders of these megachurches who talks about how people join his church because they are tired of their religious institutions telling them they have to do good works.

Instead, for these Christian fascists, religion is about proseltyzing, its about winning converts, its about "Christianizing" the nation. Thats why the issues they trumpet like gay marriage and teaching creationism in schools are not ones dedicated towards making people's lives better. They are instead dedicated towards dividing and conquering. Pitting people against a made up cultural enemy (the secular elitists who want to outlaw Christmas) in order to remake the country in their very frightening and intolerant image. Its very much the attitude of Christians during the wars of religion, and if they succeed they will take their cultural/religious war to a world stage, where evil and war will result.

It strikes me that since the Christian fascists have succeeding in making me something less than human (the devilish Secular humanist) I can play very little role in stopping the rise of their intolerant nation. Instead it will have to be people who are believers and are willing to stand up to prevent their religion being used in the name of evil and intolerance. I see very little to suggest that this is happening. The next step for the Christian fascists is to try to market their message to other ethnic groups (its primarily a white movement right now) but Bush and company are trying to reach out to Hispanics and African Americans, with some success. One good trend however is that demographic surveying shows that young people are much more tolerant and more religiously diverse then previous generations. - posted by alex @ 3:52 PM
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Jackass of the Day
Today's Jackass is Columbus, GA assistant principal Alfred Parham, who gave a boy a ten-day suspension for taking a cell phone call during lunch-time. The call was from his mother in Iraq. The suspension was apparently in lieu of an arrest, which would have been truly outrageous.

Alfred Parham, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 2:51 PM
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Jackass of the Day
I'm coming back with an occassional feature: Jackass of the Day. This is already a cool feature on the website of the New Jersey GOP. It seems that because they don't hold many important state offices, they are free to concentrate on having a cool website.

In any case, I thought of the idea of the Jackass of the Day well before the New Jersey GOP, but was unable to publish it due to red tape.

As is only fitting, the first Jackass of the Day is an economist who pretends not to read my blog and hangs out in the computer lab with sociologists.

Michael Malcolm, you're a jackass! - posted by Marc @ 4:48 AM
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More Cool Map Tricks

States that have not yet convinced me that they are not entirely worthless:


- posted by Marc @ 4:32 AM
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Capital Punishment and Jewish Law
A commenter notes that not all conservatives are Christians, and therefore not all have a dilemma in reconciling their religious views with capital punishment. But it is a mistake to think that our ancestors went around executing people willy-nilly, as some might infer from Leviticus. The Talmudists required legal procedure even besting California's, such that executions would almost never happen.

It has also been said that a Sanhedrin which executed one man in seventy years would be known as a murderous Sanhedrin. Rabbi Akiva, one of the most authoritative Talmudists, had said that no man would ever be executed by any Sanhedrin of which he was a member.

The Talmudists were clear about their intent, too: although various and sundry capital crimes and their forms of execution analyzed, it was also written that an actual execution for some of these crimes "has never happened, and never will happen." The point, instead, was to provide material for study, so that one may benefit by studying the Law. - posted by Marc @ 7:30 PM
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More Airline Idiocy: No wonder US Air Bankrupt
I'm flying from Tampa to Albany on June 3, and then flying from Albany to Washington, DC in early July.

The trip to Albany will cost $49 on Southwest. US Air has a competing flight, but a one-way ticket would be $338. A round-trip would have been only $130, oddly.

Returning, I would rather take a flight into DCA, where US Air has a hub. This would cost $208. I can fly into BWI on Southwest for just $39.

At least, for our safety, the price-setting numbnuts aren't flying the planes.

I'm pretty sure that's all there is to it. I don't think I'm overlooking a complex issue. On the face of it, it looks totally moronic. And that first impressions are correct is backed up by Southwest's market cap exceeding the combined market cap of all other airlines combined. - posted by Marc @ 1:36 AM
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More Other Blogging

I don't understand Christians who support the death penalty. In response to one theocon blogger on Child of Reagan who thinks that the Pope and all the Bishops and priests are making a big error, I have tried to help by imagining what Jesus would have said if he thought the death penalty a good idea. I present: The Gospel of Death Penalty Jesus.

Yes, this was inspired in part by Al Franken. And also a conversation with Ian Spivey. - posted by Marc @ 1:10 AM
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Places I've been
This is awesome.


I must confess to cheating on Germany: I just changed planes in Frankfurt on a Lufthansa flight from JFK to Tel Aviv. I've also been to the Netherlands and Jamaica, which aren't very visible on this map.

And also for USA:


create your own personalized map of the USA


hat tip: Matthew Yglesias - posted by Marc @ 6:38 PM
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Because Zimbabwe hasn't got enough problems...
Sun Sentinel: Woman Paid Invisible Mermaid's Airfare - posted by Marc @ 11:45 PM
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Living Wage
A commentor wants me to write an op-ed for The Hoya putting the kibosh on the Living Wage proposal. I'll instead link to this blog, started by an uppity freshman, who seems to represent the silent majority of Georgetown students who think GU Solidarity is dumb.

The Truth About the Living Wage - posted by Marc @ 4:32 PM
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