Happy, Happy! Joy, Joy! The people who brought you Amtrak, the Post Office, the Brady Bill, and Mohair subsidies have further involved themselves in education.
In a rhetorical smack-down of
In a rhetorical smack-down of unparalleled dimensions, Anne D. Coughman at Protein Wisdom gives Ted Rall the thrashing of his life. I have read this four times, and I laugh out loud each time. This really should be a how-to example for bludgeoning morons, and it ranks up there with P.J. O’Rourke’s Kennedy-hating manual (Mordred Had a Point- Camelot Revisited in Give War A Chance). Perhaps reciting this should be required to join Charles Johnson’s Anti-Idiotarian party.
Also, do not miss PhotoDude’s take on the H. Rap Brown trial, currently underway in Atlanta.
Back to work. Let it be known I officially hate writing abstracts.
The Illuminated Donkey discusses name
The Illuminated Donkey discusses name changes for blogs. This site (Balloon Juice, not Blogical Suspects) has had more name changes than days of existence. Now I find out that one of the reasons Blogical Suspects changed names was that when abbreivated it was BS. Balloon Juice, shortened, me thinks is worse. Sometimes I want to cry.
Andrew Sullivan notes that it
Andrew Sullivan notes that it is a sad world because the 10 day old daugher of Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, died. I disagree. This is a terribly sad event, and we do extend our condolences, but the remarkable rarity of this sort of tragedy as opposed to the frequency with which it occurred just 30 years ago is reason enough for a positive outlook for the future. The daily expansions in our medicine, science, and technology, as well as the unprecedented freedoms we enjoy, are truly a marvel to behold. Don’t forget what we are fighting for when we send out troops into Afghanistan to stop an enemy who wants to terrorize us back to the stone ages.
I watched Exit Wounds last
I watched Exit Wounds last night, and I am afraid that my vocabulary is not large enough to completely eviscerate it properly. I will attempt a a Ten Second Movie Review anyway:
Exit Wounds– Seagal still runs like a girl. Handguns carry a lot of bullets, which is good because bad guys miss a lot. Movie equivalent of a root canal.
I will post more later. I have not checked Professor Pundit’s sight in 12 hours, so I have a couple hours of reading to do.
If there was ever a
If there was ever a question that Congress’s attitude was that they pass laws for other people (meaning us, the peasant class), listen to John Dingell whining about having to remove his trousers because the STEEL BRACE around his knee was setting off the alarms.
“I complied, but tried to do it with some small bit of dignity,” Dingell said, adding that afterward he couldn’t help seething to his wife, “Woman, do you realize what they made me do?” He added: “It seems to me that there was some incompetence involved here.”
After considering Dingell’s track record in Congress, his dignity seems to be something that is difficult to hurt anymore, but at least he perceives he was wronged. Dingell then called Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta, whose chief lackey stated “The secretary got ahold of Mr. Dingell and told him he is appalled.”
Why is he appalled? The screeners were doing their job, and I am not sure at this time if Dingell was his usual loud obnoxious self when it was announced that screeners are going to be required to have high school degrees.
Dingell recounted: “I said, ‘Norm, I’m not asking for an apology. And I know we don’t want any more events like September 11th. I don’t want any special treatment. I don’t want to be treated any better than anyone else, but I don’t want to be treated any worse either.’ “
If he doesn’t want special treatment, he should shut up and suffer the indignities that the rest of us are going through in the name of security. Norm Mineta’s number is not on my speed dial.
Tim Blair updates the ‘Paki’
Tim Blair updates the ‘Paki’ scandal, which, as it turns out, is not a scandal at all.
Also, thanks to the mention by the folks at HappyFunPundit. Yes, this is a new site, and I will see how long it lasts. I already need to do some serious template updating, and my layout is just wretched. And no, I was not thinking of the other balloon juice (nor had I ever thought of it in that way). My title has been now amended so as to avoid confusion.