Pathetic Earthlings

The California Coast, In One

You may have caught Barbra Streisand's lawsuit against would-be aerial photographers -- but you should check out the rest of their work -- more than 12,000 overlapping images of the entire California coast, from Oregon to Mexico.

NB: It's chock full of adverts for Bustamante, but if you dig around you can turn them off.

His Name was Ouch

A man in Cambodia died after his wife squeezed his testicles until he fainted.

Via Throwing Things.

The Long Arm of the Law

I'm really hoping that one of the folks affected by this nonsense -- when they are defrosted in the Amazing Future Year Two Billion -- will build a time machine and come smack the authorities of the State of Michigan.

No doubt, the folks behind this effort are the mortuary services industry -- one of the most craven and protectionist cartels around -- who don't much care for the competition.

Via Rand Simberg.

Whisky Survey #6 : Professor Chris Hall

One of my favorite new blogs is Chris Hall's Spacecraft Design -- "
Discussion of Spacecraft Design, Dynamics and Control, and News." Chris is a professor of aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech, and his blog is designed to be, in part at least, a tool for his students to raise and discuss problems related to his spacecraft dynamics courses.

His blog isn't limited to spacecraft design -- he talks motorcycles, he has a great spacecraft-of-the-day feature, and, most importantly, he noted, without prompting, what I thought was the single funniest thing I ever wrote on this blog.

If Chris' blogging style -- an obvious belief that rocket science can be precise without needing appearing as hieroglyphics to a lay audience -- is any indication of his teaching style, he's probably a damned fine teacher to boot.

* * *

Chris answered, sua sponte, the Whisky Blogger's Questionaire some time ago and I've been neglectful to get it up. The last few weeks I've been bird-dogging my new job (which I now have... and love... and will explain later) so I've been mostly drive-by blogging of late. His commentary is in italics.

Thought I'd participate, even though I'm not a big whisky drinker. I prefer
tequila (Herradura silver) and beer (especially ales).

What is your favorite single malt scotch?

Glenlivet.

What bottles of whiskey do you have open at home right now?

Glenlivet. Laphroaig.

How do you take your whiskey?

With a bit of tap water, about 75/25.

Who introduced you to single malt whisky?

I was in the USAF stationed in England in the late 70s. First I found out
about good beer, then traveled around the island sampling the local goods.
One day on the ferry from Arran to Ayr, I met a young lady from Glasgow who
poured in a pub there. I followed her (panting all the while) and there was
introduced to whisky. Incidentally I have always been astounded by the liquor
shelf in a typical UK pub: 100 bottles = 1 bourbon, 2 gins, 1 tequila, 1 rum,
3 vodkas, 23 blended whiskies, 69 single-malt whiskies. If I really loved
whisky, I'd simply have to move back there.

Is there a good discount bottle shop near you?

Nah. Just the state-run ABC store. I usually pick up a few bottles of
various beverages whenever I visit an Air Force Base.

What are your preferred circumstances for enjoying a dram?

After dinner when visiting with professional colleagues.

Bustamante Buts In

Usually, campaign pledges aren't facially unconstitutional.

The Berkeley I Love

Woman Arrested for Going Topless... at a rally protesting the sacking of a school teacher who was supplementing her salary as a call girl.

We're Finding the Way to Other Planets

With Mars at its closest in 60,000 years, I thought I would pass along this poster from my collection -- one of my favorite from that Soviet triumphalist period of the 1950's-1960s -- We are Finding Our Way to Other Planets

I especially like the flowing scarf and high-altitude (rather than spacewalk-worthy) pressure suit, there on the moon. I know I have a tendency to find everything somewhat Heinleinian, but the Soviet ubermensch on the Moon strikes me as Hazel Stone's worst nightmare.

Cars Direct, etc.

What the hell happened to Cars Direct and Autobytel? They used to be great ways to buy cars by aggregating whole regions of car dealerships for the lowest price... now they simply act as referrall agents to your closest dealership, which provides me absolutely no value whatsoever. I've got a perfectly reliable car in the 500SEC, but now I'm forced to fax every damned dealership in the Bay Area and Sacramento to try to do the same thing that the on-line guys did for free.

Sorry, guys, if the invoice is $20.3K and the MSRP is $21.7K and your hold back is $400, I'm sure as hell not paying $21.2K, let alone $21.7K for a VW. ("There is [sic] so few cars on the market, sorry, that's the deal. I feel your pain." says the jackhole at Dirito Brothers in Walnut Creek)

If anyone is pals with a VW dealer in Northern or Central California or Reno -- let me know -- I'm not driving to get into their holdback, and I'm happy to pay a small premium over invoice, but I've never paid MSRP and I'm not about to start.

Blessed are the Cheesemakers

Silverblue notes an article that cheese is as addictive as many drugs.

I think it's because a good Stilton is actually made from crack.

Experience with VW Diesel Jetta?

I am, shortly, to face a 150 mile RT commute. I don't mind the distance, since I-80 toward Sacramento is a monumentally easy drive. I do, however, mind the 15 mpg city mileage of my 1984 500 SEC. So I'm going to go test drive a VW Jetta TDI, which gets about 52 mpg. Diesel's a little harder to find here in the suburbs, but at 52 mpg, who the hell cares?

This is $7 or $8 in gas a day v. $23 or $25 -- about $300/month -- and while I like the oil industry just fine, that's damned near an entire car payment.

Anyway, if any of my readership has any experience with VW Diesels, let me know, alright?

Go Maroons

Even more greatness at the University of Chicago : a profile of economist Steven Levitt.

Vegas Report

I don't much buy the Vegas-for-Children routine, especially when you see kids being pushed down the Strip at one in the morning. So one of the big imparatives of our going to Vegas this weekend was that, given the likelihood of Little Earthlings in the next year or two, the odds of our getting to Vegas together -- and alone -- in the next 15 years are pretty low.

I don't have much funny commentary -- read Fear and Loathing or a biography or Robert Urich if you want to learn something about Vegas you can't catch in the guidebooks -- but we did have a couple of useful tidbits:

First, if you are a cheapskate blackjack player like I am, head for the Bellagio mid-morning -- they've got $5 tables in abundance. And while they change to $10 tables by 11 a.m., the pit boss will grandfather you in. The Bellagio is as nice as can be and short of bird's nest soup, which they provide to the $100K baccarat tables, Bellagio will set you up with anything from a Smoothie to a Macallan.

Second, if you aren't an early riser, check out Barbary Coast, which is kitty-corner from the Bellagio, on casino up from Bally's. It's got plenty of the downtown charm -- dark wood panelling, well-worn blackjack felts, cheap roulette ($1 inside, $3 outside) -- but none of that creepy desperation you can find late night at Binion's Horseshoe. The restrooms were utterly spotless and the cocktail service was very prompt indeed.

Huffington Blog

Nothing remarkable about Arianna Huffington having a campaign blog -- everyone's doing it -- what is interesting is that it has an unmoderated, or at least not overly censored, comments section.

So, stop by and leave a comment and see if you can't draw some traffic for yourself.

Read This

This is the best summary of the blogosphere yet.

Hat Tip -- Say Uncle.

Klutsis-A-Go-Go

One thing on the Earthling agenda this weekend in Vegas ("Vegas, Baby, Vegas!") is dinner at Red Square at the Mandalay. Last time we were there, we walked by to check it out, but they weren't open yet. The doorman was kind enough to let us poke are heads in and I was very pleased that the decor -- apart from the famous bust of Lenin in an ice block -- is complete with a number of murals of Gustav Klutsis posters, which is pretty damned cool.

I'll take some snaps, if they'll let me.

Gustav Klutsis was probably the singular most important Soviet poster artist and one of Stalin's favored people (until the time that he wasn't, then to the gulag!). If you've ever seen the photomontage style of Soviet poster -- here, here, and here - Klutsis really was the master of the form and his influence on poster art was pretty broad - and nothing, I don't think, says "Soviet Propaganda" more than photomontage poster art (Check out this 1962 space-themed poster glorifying Vostok 3 and 4 here).

N.B.: By the way, if you are interesting in buying some propaganda posters, see my earlier comments here.

Anti-French (Chef) Terrorism

A couple of days ago, I mentioned the threats of violence directed at chefs in San Francisco who serve foie gras -- and chefs around town are beginning to react.

Most are defiant -- as you might expect -- but the chef at Jardiniere has caved:

On the other side are chefs like Jardiniere's Traci Des Jardins, who said she will discontinue her signature foie gras and see how customers respond. Although she, like many chefs, wonders if her restaurant will be the next target, Des Jardins says her decision is not about fear. Ever since she visited a foie gras farm in 1995, Des Jardins said she's been "haunted by the image of those ducks."

No fear at work here. For eight years, those ducks didn't haunt her so much that she stopped surving up foie gras by the bushel, but a few weeks after this anti-foie gras harassment starts, her nightmares got the best of her?

On the other hand, Dan Schroeder, chef at Palio d'Asti, pretty much describes the American libetarian ethos:

"I'm against any sort of Puritan gestures. People get to choose what they want to do -- eat foie gras, have abortions, read and write whatever they want."

The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat has this follow-up report.

New York Times, Wrong Again

The New York Times science coverage is pretty excellent and I always like that they aren't shy about running a good, poetic Editorial on science now and again, but yesterday's -- Mars Approaches -- was deeply off the mark on one point:

If you like, you can imagine a race of Martians wondering how close the blue planet is going to come and perhaps taking precautions. But a Mars without Martians is glorious enough. To watch the night sky with Mars kindling in Aquarius is to glimpse dimly a universe beyond the insubstantial aspic of human thought. Even under our shroud of light, we pay attention when Mars comes by. It draws us out to gaze at it against the backdrop of this unrepeatable universe, which we like to pretend is so strangely familiar.

Mars without Martians is glorious enough?

Not for me, not glorious enough by half. When my grandchildren are Martians, now that will be glorious.

In the meantime, Mars without Martians will have to do.

Cry, DiFi.

I used to find Dianne Feinstein semi-tolerable. Not because I cared for her positions, mind you, but because she had that rare virtue of being honest -- she wants to take away everyone's guns (except hers), yes, but at least she said so. And while that may force me to keep my hand on the holster, it at least clarifies the debate unlike, say, Charles Schumer or Gray Davis, who claim to believe in the Second Amendment, but would, given the chance, limit that right to the use of .62 caliber Nerf darts.

Now Dianne Feinstein, who got misty-eyed on CNN's Inside Politics that she stayed out of the contingent race while Arnold Schwarzenegger got in, is so distressed about the recall, she won't even vote for Bustamante in the contingent election.

Rather petulant, our Senatrix.

The contingent election might have been a swell idea if had been her, but since some other Democrat might help push out Gray Davis, it's now not.

Vegas, Baby, Vegas

I think Mrs. Earthling and I are going to grab some low-fare airline tickets (we found a RT, SFO-Vegas, $138 a pop) and head to Vegas tomorrow and Sunday night. Found a good deal at the Aladdin, too. We usually stay at Mirage, but they want like $299 a night or something stupid at this late date.

So, obviously, blogging may be limited.

Big News from the Big Cheese

I just got like, you know... a... job.

More details as I can release them.

Estrich on Huffington

A fisking of the soul.

Davis' Tactical Problem

State Sen. Don Perata (D-Oakland) isn't of my political stripe, but given that he doesn't spin everything, he's a reliable channel-marker for what the Democrats are really thinking. And he thinks things aren't going well for the Governor.

[Perata] said voters in his liberal district want to support the governor but are looking for a reassurance that they can. He said Davis needs to take advantage of all the bills coming his way from the Legislature this summer by showing he's working hard.

"I don't think being defiant plays well for Gray," Perata said. "It plays back into the negative perceptions people have about him. I would have him go the other direction. I would have him take the high road."

Sharon Davis Does the Blogosphere

Sharon Davis has a blog. And it's about as useful as any other politician's blog. Which is to say, not at all.

Hat Tip (and additional biting commentary) via Fresh Potatoes.

Davis-Bustamante Rift Grows

Garry South and Richie Ross are leading the Davis-Bustamante cockfight:

The fight went public when Bustamante's campaign manager, Richie Ross, heard that Davis had sent his former campaign manager Garry South to various Indian reservations in the hopes of tying up their money.

Ross, who spent a good part of this week hammering South and other Davis "minions," said: "With these guys, it's always the same -- their way or no way. "

"And they are having an impact on us raising money," Ross added.

South called Ross' charges "a complete and total lie...The real story here is that it's Cruz's people who are calling up donors saying that the governor is toast," he said.

I never though the No Recall/Yes Bustmante ("NRYB") plan could last. But I did not expect it to disintegrate quite this quickly.

More interesting, though, is that no story seems to help Davis anti-recall effort:

"We've tested all the arguments -- 'The recall is a 'Republican conspiracy, ' 'He deserves a second chance,' 'The recall will disrupt the Democratic support for women, labor and the environment' -- and none of them moves voters past the 40 percent mark," said one Democratic pollster.

Strangest Google Yet

Someone came here because they Googled for "Bocce Ball Jew." What the hell is that about?

The Artist's Medium? Bacon

This fellow works in acrylic and bacon.

Great Pate, Mom, But I've got to Motor

Animal rights morons are vandalizing the cars, homes and businesses of the purveyors of foie gras and moving on to personal intimidation --- and the local police are taking it seriously:

The worst damage came last week when vandals broke into the new foie gras specialty store and restaurant that Manrique and his partners had planned to open next month in a historic adobe building on the Sonoma Plaza....Vandals plugged new plumbing with chunks of cement, spray-painted the walls and appliances, and turned on the water, according to police.

The resulting flood forced two neighboring stores to shut down, with little hope of reopening until next week at the earliest, said property manager Lori Bremner. She said the adobe in the building, built in 1842, should dry out, but the damage to the new shop and the loss of business to the neighbors could send the total tab close to $50,000.

Naturally enough, this is being labeled... what else?:

[Sonoma Police Chief John Gurney] calls the case "domestic terrorism."

This is a serious property crime and parts of this anti-pate campaign are the equal of some of the worst anti-abortion intimidation, but even here, I have a hard time accepting the snapshot charge of "terrorism."

"It's because of the nature of the crime and the fact that they are trying to impact the freedom of citizens here and intimidate them to change their course of business," he said. "That happens to be illegal."

This anti-pate campaign is serious -- home addresses published on the net, acid splashed on cars, businesses destroyed, historic buildings flooded. Chefs being sent videotapes of their own children.

But as bad as this is -- and it's bad -- does this conspiracy actually rise to the level of terrorism? Can't things still be merely criminal?

It's not as though there aren't plenty of statutes under which these idiots can be charged and incarcerated -- criminal threats, extortion, mischief as well as the underlying conspiracy -- but apparently, things to needs to be labeled "terrorism" to be taken seriously.

Mind you, I don't blame the Sonoma police for labelling these acts "terrorist". Chief Gurney probably knows what has become apparent to me: it is now necessary -- but probably no longer sufficient -- to call something "terrorism" to get any support from federal law enforcement... and federal law enforcement is exactly what you need to deal with this kind of interstate conspiracy.

As a general proposition, I'm pretty happy with the progress on the international War on Terrorism, but given years of flooding cash and attention into the Homeland Security version of Sylvester McMonkey McBean's Star-On and Star-Off machine -- abortion "terrorism", child pornography "terrorism", gangland "terrorism", club drug "terrorism", environmental "terrorism" and, oh yeah, threats of mass murder on domestic soil "terrorism" -- I just wonder if government still knows the difference.

* * *

I don't care for pumps and filters myself, but here are some gratutious foie gras links:

Sonoma Foie Gras (a local producer), a book on foie gras, some foie gras recipes, foie gras sales, and comprehensive fois gras sites.

An interesting pro-Arianna view of the recall

I certainly don't agree with the conclusion that Arianna Huffington is either a feasible (or desireable) candidate (let alone Governor), but this is a pretty good anti-Davis piece from a decidedly left-of-center publication.

What has the establishment so panicked about this election is hardly the threat of chaos. It's rather the unpredictability of the process and its outcome. Imagine electing some candidate that hasn't already been bought and paid for. The horror, the horror.

We're told the recall is a hijacking, a coup, the illegitimate overturning of a legitimate election; ultimately, we're warned, this is the unwashed and witless electorate running riot. Pundits beware: This "circus" election is likely to generate a bigger turnout than last year's "official" contest. A staggering 90 percent of voters say they plan to cast ballots on October 7. In a recent Gallup Poll, almost 70 percent of likely voters said they want to oust Gray Davis.

Those who continue to insist this recall is a sham perhaps ought to take the advice Bertolt Brecht once gave the East German regime: Maybe the government should dismiss the people and elect a new one?

Read, as they say, the whole thing.

I claim responsibility!

I claim responsibility for the 49ers comeback in Super Bowl XXIII.

Survival Kit Essentials

With all this noise in Blogosphere East about what one needs for a survival kit, I would point the reader to a post I made back in February about Peggy Noonan's wise decision to stock a good bottle of single malt in her with kit.

Confusion to the French!

If you like Cognac but are looking for a way to divert your dollars from France, you should keep an eye out for anything from Germain-Robin, a Ukiah, California alambic brandy -- one of the tastiest things that will ever pass your lips.

I first received a bottle of the XO at my bachelor party and I had a splash while discussing Cuban Agricultural Policy but, in tragic chain of events, the bottle ended up involved in a late-night shot contest. Tragic for its use in such a way, yes, but even more so that I didn't get any more.

Freedom of the Seas

South Korean patrol boats shot at a North Korean fishing boat after it moved less than 200 yards into South Korean waters.

Nothing really to report, and certainly no complaints, but that's one snapshot response.

Kentucky Bourbon Festival

For any of you out there in the Central and Eastern Time Zones, you might want to check out the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, September 17-21, 2003, in Bardstown, KY.

A Survey of Rye

Here's a great survey of some American rye whiskies, I disagree with their harsh review of Old Potrero, but it's a broader review of rye than I've yet managed here.

Just what you need to start work on a Monday morning.

Yes on Bustamante, anyway

Looks like the No on Recall - Yes on Bustamante tact is already under a great deal of stress:

"If some of the governor's minions would stop trying to undercut my efforts, I think we could have a very coalesced opportunity for Democrats ... and we have a possibility of having a win-win position on the ballot," Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

And the non-denial from the Davis camp is rather entertaining:

Steve Smith, Davis' campaign manager, said his team was not trying to cripple the Bustamante effort.

"As far as I know, and I think I would know, we're not engaged in that," Smith said. "From the governor on down, I think we've been fairly complimentary of the lieutenant governor."

I always figured that Feinstein alone would have the political support to actually run a bifrucated campaign like the one Bustamante is attempting, but I don't think it will be much longer before Bustamante drops all but the thinnest pretense in trying to keep Davis in office.

It's all about oil

It's certainly all about oil for the anti-American elements in Iraq.

Grass Roots Federalism

Here's an interesting profile of Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal Glover, an African-American supervisor from the posturepedic bedroom communities of East County.

I don't follow county politics with much enthusiasm, but Federal Glover is certainly not the biggest fool on the Board of Supervisors, and it's nice to see a very liberal newspaper like the Express acknowledge -- at long last -- that race is not... and ought not... be the driving factor for qualification for public office.

What's overdue is the public recognition that the first phase of black political empowerment is over. Once upon a time, when cities like Richmond and Oakland were dominated by a white business elite, the need for black representation was so dire that Lionel Wilson could sleep through three terms as Oakland's mayor and still come out looking like a winner. Now, as an entire generation has gotten used to wielding power, voters are finally able to see beyond the race of their leaders and demand tangible results from them. If white politicians such as Gioia represent their black constituents well, they can count on being returned to office. According to Jim McMillan, the president of Contra Costa's Black American Political Action Committee, there was talk of running a black candidate for West County supervisor in 1999. "But along came a guy named John Gioia," he says. "And while symbolically it would be nice if there had been an African-American candidate, I think John does an excellent job."

If black voters regard the need for African Americans in higher office as less of a priority, white voters in East County are able to look past a candidate's skin color as well. Fueled by the growth in Antioch's black population, the region is adopting a much more inclusive approach to politics, in which politicians are viewed on their merits, and their race is steadily diminishing as a prominent factor. No one has taken better advantage of that than Glover. "It wasn't African Americans alone that put me in office," he says. "This was a community that put me in, and a changing community over the years. My poll numbers are representative not of the African-American community, but of people."

Besides, I like the fact that we've got a politician named "Federal" -- it strikes me as very antebellum.

The Dirt on Weintraub

Recall Blogger Extrodinaire Dan Weintraub has been interviewed by a fellow out of Sydney.

I was pleased to see that Weintraub's getting about 20,000 hits per day.

Indian Space Program News

Indian PM Vajpayee announced, in connection with the 56th anniversary of India's independence, that the Indian Space Research Organization will send an unmanned probe to the Moon by 2008.

Your Clothes - Give Them To Me

A strong critique of the early Schwarzenegger campaign is up as a guest-blog piece at CalBlog -- Shriver seems to think that Republicans in California actually give a damn about Hollywood and the media.

My only critique with Spooky's excellent post is that I don't think Shriver thought Warren Buffett would be good because he's rich -- I'm guessing Shriver thought Warren Buffett would be good because he's famous.

Fresno's Reign of Terror

Proof, yet again, that people in government are no different than regular folks:

Fresno residents and community leaders, outraged by an e-mail message in which City Council Member Jerry Duncan wished he had a "dirty bomb" to kill every liberal in Fresno, called Thursday for his resignation, recall or reprimand.

A crowd that gathered in City Hall also chastised City Council Member Brian Calhoun and his chief assistant, Ann Kloose, who wrote in an e-mail that police should "Cap" members of the Human Relations Commission.

Good news for xenobiology

Life just keeps proving itself tougher and tougher --- a new microbe found in a magma vent can live at 266 degrees... and thrive at 217 degrees Celsius. This gives life a lot more wiggle room to make it in the deep oceans of Europa. And that's good news indeed.

Friday Quiz

Same rules as the one two weeks before -- no googling, no peeking, no nothing. This time, feel free to post your answers after, say, four p.m., Pacific. Use comments before that for clarificiation.

Here you go:

1. What is missing from each of the following series: 1 Ceres, 2 Pallas, _____, 4 Vesta; Spider and Gumdrop, Snoopy and Charlie Brown, ________ ; A murder of crows, a crash of rhinocerous, a(n) ____ of peacocks.

3 Juno (the third largest asteroid; Columbia and Eagle (the other two being the Command and Lunar module of Apollo 9 and Apollo 10), an ostentation of peacocks.

2. How old must a spirit age before it can be called "whisky" under the laws of Great Britain?

Three

3. What was the 32nd state admitted to the Union? (California was 31, Oregon 33, for what it's worth).

Minnesota

4. For what large consumer product company did Richard Nixon work after losing his 1962 bid to be California Governor?

Pepsi-Cola

5. What's the only professional sports team with no English word as part of neither its city nor mascot?

San Diego Padres

6. What two states have -- but only one -- professional sports team of the big four (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL) (i.e., one total, not one of each)?

Oregon and Utah

7. In the Blue Oyster Cult song, "Harvester of Eyes" a lyric reads "I'm the eye-man on TV/With the occular TB" -- the song was written and makes reference to a famously unsuccessful Senate confirmation hearing of Abe Fortas. To what was he being appointed and why did he feel the need to mention he had occular tuberculosis? And who ultimately got the job?

Associate Justice Abe Fortas was nominated to be chief justice by LBJ. He did not serve during the Second World War and used occular TB as his official excuse. Warren Burger was named Chief Justice by Nixon, the Senate having failed to confirm Fortas due to some financial irregularities

8. (I don't know whether this is peculair to California or not): Driving down the street, you'll see an occasional blue reflector in the road. What does it indicate?

A fire hydrant is on the side of the road

9. Within 50,000, how many gallons in an acre-foot?

350,000 gallons

10. What was the capital of Assyria?

Niveneh

11. What's the worst bet on a Roulette table?

Bet on the upper left corner of the "1" and you've laid a bet on 0-00-1-2-3, but the pay off is only five-to-one.

12. What year was the DeLorean introduced?

1983

13. What would you do for a Klondike bar?

At least one correspondent incidated he would cluck like a chicken. I will test this theory soon and report back

14. What's this: BBROYGBVGW?

It's the order of colored bands on a resistor indicating its rated resistance. Black-Brown-Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Violet-Gray-White

15. What was Operation: Paperclip?

The operation in the final days of WW2 to collect German rocket scientists and relevant data and material

We have always been at war with Eurasia

Here's an interesting piece on the rewriting of Iraqi text books.

Each book was reviewed twice, with proposed edits made first in pencil, then in pen. Editors looked for passages parroting Baath Party ideology. They also took out slurs against non-Arab ethnic groups...

"It's propaganda," Saleh said through an interpreter. "We had to read it and teach it."

He chuckled. "This is why maybe a lot of students don't like history," he said.

High Water Mark Flooded

I didn't think Gov Davis's numbers could get much lower and so I didn't think support for the Recall could go much above the 51% poll last month.

I was wrong.

Reporter, meet IMDB. IMDB, reporter.

I liked the headline here, but the article is actually about the fact that Robert Dole is on the ballot.

"Call me Butch," says the namesake of Viagra pitchman, former Republican presidential candidate and ex-U.S. Senator from Kansas, Robert "Bob" Dole.

"I'm not trying to be Bob Dole," says Butch Dole, a Republican, who owns Multiple Technologies Transport Inc., a delivery service that caters to the semi-conductor industry. "Some of my friends didn't know my name was Robert until this started."

My bigger point, though, is that this was a perfectly good story here, marred by a flawed cultural reference:

In the 1992 movie "The Distinguished Gentleman," Thomas Jefferson Johnson, a Florida hustler played by Eddie Murphy, rides his name and voter confusion into the United States Senate, winning election to the seat vacated by the death of his namesake, Sen. Jeff Johnson.

It's just not hard to get it right.

Chunky Monkey

I'd never heard of this cat before Rich Hailey brought me to his attention, but apparently a he doesn't like having his readers asking him difficult questions:

I sent the above questions to Michael, and received his response while writing this post. I'll quote it here, again in its entirety:

Tell it to your two readers, Chunky Monkey Atkins cultist.

Take him seriously folks. He's a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute.

NB: By the way, I know this incident is the blogosphere flavor of the week, but I wanted to pass it along anyway.

Get Your Ass To Mars!

Got $2M to spare? Want to own a quarter-pound of the planet Mars? Check out this auction, being held in September, of the largest piece of Martian meteorite in private hands A piece of Mars knocked off the planet about 1.5 billion years ago which landed in Nigeria in 1962, the "Zagami" meteorite.

I actually own a tiny piece of this very same meteorite, which Mrs Earthling had cut and put into my wedding band. It's very cool to walk around all day toting a small chunk of the planet Mars, not least when my sweet wife gave it to me.

Noted via Robert Pearlman's CollectSpace.

* * *

Speaking of Mars: Get yourself outside after about 10 pm -- it rises just ahead of the Moon tonight -- and take a look. Mars is closer now than it has been in 60,000 years and, well, it looks like it.

Canned Heat

Some 3,000 folks in France have died from heat-related deaths during the European heat wave. Although these numbers seem high, but probably are not. An average of 1,000 Americans die each year from heat wave-related deaths and about 500 folks in Chicago died during a five day heatwave in 1995.

Of course, given the scope of the deaths in France we must ask ourselves:

What did Jacques Chirac know... and when did he know it?

$35M a month

The Pentagon apparently can't find $35M a month to cotinue to pay hazardous duty and family separation pay. Apparently "its budget can't sustain the higher payments amid a host of other priorities."

Outrageous.

His Excellency

Mayor Willie Brown, Jr. is gunning to be Ambassador to France under the next Democrat administration. Of course, by leaving the United States and setting up shop in France, he would increase the ethical standards of politicians in both countries.

N.B.: The scenario presented in this piece (Feinstein wins the Governorship and appoints him Senator) is obviously both out of date and unlikely in all events, but I've no doubt that he's positioning himself for exactly this.

Update: There's no question that Willie Brown has the appetites to succeed in France.

Flash Mobs

I just want to be the first to declare that FlashMobs are so July.

Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer

Thank you everyone for many, many generous offers for assistance in dealing with my Patient Zero status with MSBlast. Best I can figure it I actually first got this thing on Sunday night, not Monday.

In any event, it's cool to have a computer engineer an aerospace engineer and several other technical people in the audience willing and able to offer me useful advice.

As Phil Hartman put it, "Your world frightens and confuses me... your iron birds, your magic-picture boxes. I do not understand these things. You see, I am just an unfrozen caveman lawyer, and while I do not understand these magic cavepaintings, I do know that my client is entitled to $4.4M in compensatory damages..."

* * *

Anyway, I've got a great bunch of readers and I appreciate the help. Blogging will be slightly less frequent until I get my system up and running again.

Best,
-Andrew

California Recall Link-o-Rama

As always, check at Politics 1 for as complete a set of links contingent candidate campaign websites are you are going to find.

Oaksterdam

Nothing like selling marijuana in a rundown part of Oakland to lower crime:

"We love them, we love them!" said Mario Paceppi, the owner of the Fat Cat Cafe, who has a medical marijuana recommendation for acid reflux and gastrointestinal problems. With the new crop of clubs joining long-existing ones -- including the flagship Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, which sells cannabis-related wares and distributes ID cards but no longer sells marijuana -- the area has been revitalized and is cleaner and safer, he said.

"Because there are more eyes out. When it was more desolate, there was all sorts of horrible stuff going on." Plus -- jokes about marijuana-induced munchies aside -- patients and club employees regularly stop in for lunch.

"That's the only thing pushing the economy down there," he said.

Of course, I'm all for the straight-up legalization of marijuana and, pretty much, for the decriminalization of everything else, but Proposition 215 -- our medical marijuana initiative -- was sold as a medicine for cancer and AIDS patients and as relief for the terminally ill. It probably did not contemplate reefer as a treatment for wrist injuries.

Always bet on black

"I didn't leave bodybuilding until I felt that I had gone as far as I could go. It will be the same with my film career. When I feel the time is right, I will then consider public service. I feel that the highest honor comes from serving people and your country."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger, March 1996

An annotated Heinlein Quote

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surely curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.

- Robert Anson Heinlein

The Horror, the Horror!

CommonDreams is upset. There's a sickness in this world. It wasn't in the gulags of Iraq, it isn't in the pogroms of Zimbabwe, it's not even in the Russian war in Chechnya. No. It's in the aisles of KB Toys.

And what is it? What plague has befallen us?

Why, it's a 12" action figure depicting George W. Bush in a Naval aviator's outfit.

CommonDreams, however, is on top of this ghastly visage, this horrifying artifact and finds it abhorrent to all that is right and decent in society. Not only have they declared it "sick", they want and that you should email KB Toys and tell 'em so.

I feel better already.

And no doubt starving North Korean orphans feel better already, too.

Garamendi Out

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has dropped out of the contingent election under pressure from Democrats who did not want the insurance commission to split the Democrat vote.

Earlier today, Gray Davis noted (via FOXnews) that he felt that the presence of several Democrats in the contingent election would help him make the case against the recall.

Of course, I thought the Democrats were so united against the recall that splitting the contingent vote wouldn't matter that much... how peculiar.

South African Tequila

This isn't whiskey, by any stretch, but until there's a tequila blogger, I'll claim emergency jurisdiction:

A South African company, while acknolwedging Mexico's monopoly over the appelation "tequila" is making an agave-based spirit (i.e., tequila) for export to the United States. And these guys think they have a chance to break in to the U.S. market:

"In blind tasting, we've never come last," says Roy McLachlan, managing director of the distillery. "We are usually second or third of six products. We've got good ratings."

The Mexicans, however, think otherwise:

The Mexican government has been less kind in its reviews of the South African upstart's drink.

"Even the best quality of their spirits tastes too much like alcohol," reports Alberto Aura, spokesman for the Embassy of Mexico in South Africa. "It had a very rough agave flavor, but definitely not tequila."

I've had New Zealand, Japanese, Irish and American single-malt "scotch", and will try the German, Czech ("King Barley"), Australian and Pakistani ones when I can find 'em, so why not South African Tequila? I'll give it a try.

That Guy Had Better Not Turn

Gray Davis gets to drive 90 miles per hour. You don't.

Update: You, however, can:

A section of the Vehicle Code allows physicians to exceed the speed limit when responding to an emergency call. The code states if a vehicle has an insignia or sticker identifying the driver as a licensed physician, the driver can speed as long as he or she obeys other traffic safety laws.

But the law that was put in place to aid rural physicians hasn't been enforced for the past 30 years. The American Medical Association stopped making the stickers in the 1970s, and California Highway Patrol officials said they weren't aware of it until Eustermann's letter.

"I had never heard of it before, but it is definitely part of the law," CHP spokeswoman Anne Da Vigo said. "I think it is definitely a little-known section of the Vehicle Code."

At the urging of Eustermann and the California Medical Association, plans are now under way to reproduce the stickers and make sure police officers know about the law.

State Assembly Member Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, said she is reviewing the law and may introduce legislation to change some of the wording so there is no confusion about what the purpose is. Parra said the law is not about giving doctors the right to speed, but rather making it easier for doctors who work in the rural parts of California to travel from one hospital to another during a life-threatening situation.

XPrize Update

Rand Simberg's got an update on Rutan's X-Prize effort.

Guardian, Meet Colossus. Colossus, Guardian.

The Guardian accuses Arnold of being a Nazi and, worse yet, having not lost his accent:

He is the son of a Nazi police chief who still talks as if he has just arrived on Austrian Airlines.

Let me see if I've got this right: he came to America with $20 in his pocket and he's now worth $250M. But he's still nothing but an immigrant, so we shouldn't support him.

His rise to fame owes more to steroids than charm...

This is why his movie career has done better as he's trimmed down. This is why George Butler made Pumping Iron a movie about Lou Ferrigno and Mike Katz, yes?

and he is best known for impersonating a robot.

Fair enough.

It is not the most promising record on which to build your first campaign for American public office, but the fact is that Arnold Schwarzenegger has every chance of being elected governor of California on October 7.

Count on it.

That says something about the pervasive mood of desperation in the Golden State these days, as it faces rapidly deteriorating public services, national ridicule and a $38bn deficit. Californians are so angry they are about to vote on whether to fire the governor they elected last year, the hapless, lacklustre

"Lacklustre"? It's Lacklust-E-R. E! R! I'm reading this in America and you still write like you just walked of a British Airways flight! I cannot understand you, so you must be an idiot.

But the prospect of "The Governator" taking power in Sacramento says more about the extraordinary willpower of Schwarzenegger himself. Willpower that has propelled him along the winding road from the remote village of Thal amid the poverty and humiliation of a defeated country just two years after the second world war to the brink of political office in the US.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a model of the Triumph of the Will. No doubt Leni Refenstahl is coming out of retirement to make his campaign adverts. Look, guys, if you want to call him a Nazi, just freaking do it, and spare me the middleman, but I'll have you know in my country, "no conviction shall work corruption of blood." What your father did is his own damned business.

Wendy Leigh, Schwarzenegger's unauthorised

(Z! Zeee! Goddamned these English immigrants! I can't understand it!)

...biographer, went to Austria to research his roots, and came away convinced he plotted his political rise from an early age, using body-building and films as stepping stones to escape from a depressing home.

Heavens! Ambition!

It would, of course, not be the first time the son of an unpleasant minor official from provincial Austria rose to high office through sheer force of will. But Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is no Adolf Hitler, whatever you might have thought of Conan the Barbarian.

Well, goodness, I'm glad we've cleared that up. I was expecting tha tArnold Schwarzenegger was going to start his administration with the Enabling Act and Crystallnacht.

For one thing, he is quite liberal as far as Republicans go. He supports...gun controls

Unlike, say, Adolf Hitler.

Possibly with a political future in mind, Schwarzenegger has done all he can to cauterise the wound left by his father.

Or, say, his grandfather-in-law. Because if you want to find someone in the extended Schwarzenegger family who really helped the Nazis, I wouldn't look to a drunk Nazi police chief, but to a certain defeatest, Jew-hating American Ambassador to the Court of St. James.

He commissioned the Simon Wiesenthal Centre to research his wartime record, and it came up with no evidence of atrocities.

Of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., however, we can think of a few

Read the whole thing, but I skipped all the womanizing crap, which his costars all deny but, at least, it has the virtue of being unclear and, therefore, at least subject of debate. But we all know the story with his father and it's out on a Rule 12(b)(6).

Zapatista's Night Out

The Zapatistas may be terrorists, but I'd much rather party with them than with the Taliban.

I just liked this picture

North Island, New Zealand.

The Air Force doesn't want the Army to have jets. The Army doesn't want the Air Force to have helicopers. And NASA doesn't want me to see the Earth from space.

If folks sometimes wonder why I grouse -- quite a bit -- about NASA, is that waiting for NASA to get me into space is like waiting for the DMV to leave a Ferrari Enzo in my driveway. And I don't want to wait.

Rocky Top Volunteer Tailgate Party

Want to expand your blog-reading? Check out the Volunteer Tailgate Party over at SugarFused. The Tailgate Party is an occasion mini-Carnival of the Vanities sponsored by the the Rocky Top Brigade to show off cool posts we have missed.

The RTB, of which I am a proud member, is a clutch of Tennessee bloggers dedicated to the search for truth, justice and a good bottle of single malt scotch for around twenty dollars.

Also, in September, Pathetic Earthlings is hosting the "Carnival of the Vanities" itself. Some folks go for high

Better than the "Why Lie? I Need a Beer" homeless sign

Over at the Horror of Being Alive, check out this advert for a yard sale.

I'm a Black Plowman, Not a Lincoln

PrestoPundit's got the best current roundup of Arnie news (of course, with Justene from CalBlog out on vacation, he's got a fighting chance.) Of course, all of our Bear Flag bloggers (which has a different connotation in light of Andrew Sullivan's latest) have some good recall stuff, so check 'em all out.

* * *
Despite months of saying otherwise, I've got a rather big political announcement (subject to change without notice, your results may vary):

I am going to vote for the recall.

I am going to vote for Arnold.

* * *

I was hesitant because much as I like a guy like Tom McClintock -- or even Dick Riordan -- I was of the view that any Republican would get rolled by John Burton, et al., and the very presence of a Republican governor would embolden the Dems to redouble their efforts to screw up California. Yet I was surprised -- shocked, even -- that the GOP caucus held the line on taxes and maintained party discipline. I never knew much about State Sen. Jim Brulte, but he did right during the budget.

Yes, the books are cooked, but we all know how they are cooked, at that, at least, is a start. A tax increase would have put a wrench in the paltry recovery and the Republicans didn't let that happen. I was actually impressed, for the first time in a long, long time, with my state party.

But that might not have been enough. The state GOP is a disaster, with a belief that if we just keep running candidates further and further to the right, somehow the California electorate will wake up, slap themselves on the head and say, "What was I thinking? Of course I wanted a party in the mold of Bill Dannemeyer! That farty-pants Bill Allen lost by 74 points because he was too liberal," and finally realize that we need to elect Bob Dornan as God-Emperor of California.

California is no longer the California of my youth -- I'd love to get a George Deukemejian back, but that's not going to happen. We need a guy whose a tad more aligned with the California of 2003, not the California of 1966, and that fellow isn't Darrell Issa.

Moreover, with Bustamante in -- and Garamendi likely to follow -- Gray Davis simply stops being an issue. Davis' day is over, whether he resigns or fights on, he's dead. I know I would rather have Bustamante as Governor than Davis -- even if he's more liberal, it's not like he's available on Pay-Per-View -- so I can hardly imagine that most Democrats won't avail themselves of the same opportunity. They know how useless Davis is and the opportunity to get someone a tad more competant in the Governor's office is not one lightly missed.

Bustamante isn't who I'd like to see Governor, but he's a smart, fairly serious fellow and I think his running torpedoes the "Republican Power Grab" meme both during this election itself and, should Schwarzenegger win, while he governs. You could vote for Bustamante... and you didn't? Then hush up about a "Right Wing Coup".

We've got ourselves a square election. So let's make the most of it.

* * *

Should Arnold win, and I think he will, the Democrats of course, will try mightily to shift the blame toward Arnold for Davis' foolishness --- "Arnold's" deficit, "Arnold's" tripling of the vehicle license fee, "Arnold's" workers compensation problem --- but I don't think it works, because the mold for Arnold Schwarzenegger as Action Hero cum Governor isn't Actor cum President Ronald Reagan or Tap Dancer cum Senator George Murphy. But mild-mannered legislator cum President Gerald Ford.

* * *

My state is badly screwed up -- even the Democrats see that -- and so Governor Schwarzenegger in the coupon term plays Ford to Davis' Richard Nixon. Ford wasn't a great President, but he was a pretty damned good at changing the soiled diaper of state, and that's what the country needed and, frankly, all that they wanted.

Sure, Paul Volker's 21% interest rates were considerably more effective than Ford's Whip Inflation Now silliness, but President Ford got some important stuff done -- like fixing the Justice Department under Ed Levi. While Ford had both figurative -- and literal -- missteps, fundamentally the bleeding was so severe that no one, really, could blame Ford for any of the bad dealings that went down before. And he had a lot more room to take a crack at it.

Whether John Burton lets him have that crack is a debate for another day.

But if Arnold takes good advice to pursue just a few serious reforms -- worker's compensation, structural budget constraints -- I think he can do some good here in the coupon term and with a few key wins, even in the face of a lingering hangover from the spending binge, and Arnold might just carry it through in 2006.

Let's not forget that, despite taking over from the most cripplingly corrupt administration in the later half of the 20th century, the most socialist President since FDR (wage and price controls, anyone?), and a most paranoid and dictatorial management style. Despite taking the enormously unpleasant, but hugely necessary, step of pardoning Richard Nixon, Ford almost won in 1976.

* * *

So, come October 8, I look forward to seeing the Governor crushed and hearing the lamentations of Sharon Davis.

This is good.

* * *

(Now, on to more important things --- the Giants game at 12:35 this afternoon)

Arnold In, DiFi Out

I still haven't caught the Jay Leno bit, but Arnold's post-Late Night Press Conference (at 5:45 pm), was pretty damned good. Of course, Weintraub's got it dead to rights and you should read his whole analysis, but I'm finding something odd here... that for the first time, I'm actually excited at the prospect.

I really thought Feinstein was going to get in and end it before it began, and I think Arnold was holding off until Feinstein made herself clear, but with the likelihood that a serious Democrat (Lt Gov Bustamante or Ins Com. John Garamendi gets in tomorrow (although I was hoping that Patti Garamendi would run, so she could lose a fifth special election campaign)) and a serious Republican (Arnold), I think we've got something interesting.

In the mean time, enjoy this class David Letterman Top Ten Ways Things Would Be Different if Arnold Schwarzenegger were President.

#7 : On Easter, children search White House lawn for invisible alien predators.

Arnold's In!

Sayeth Drudge.

Objective: Chief Executive of Large Polity

Although I'm not prepared to endorse the recall as yet, at least for the next couple of days, I'm making an endorsement for Governor : Bridget O'Reilly.

Bridget O'Reilly, a 30-year old Republican from Livermore, needs a job. So she's running for governor.

It sure beats some jobs she has had, data entry for a psychic hotline, sitting inside a Safeway store telling customers the grocery chain had shut down its bank. "The thing is when you need to survive, you have to take the jobs that people are willing to give you," O'Reilly said.

Or you can convince California voters to give you one.

Of course, it may have desirable, if unintended, consequences.

That O'Reilly would stand on a street corner to promote her candidacy impressed Ryan Romines, an American Express financial adviser. "I'm going to call her about a job," he said. "I'm always on the lookout for people who are outgoing, friendly and take the initiative."

Now that would rock.

"I need a job, and it's open," said O'Reilly, who with no steady income lives at home with her parents.

I hope her folks remind her that due to Ronald Reagan's tight-fistedness (as governor, anyway), there's no governor's mansion.

Roll Your Own Flash Movie

This is kind of clever. You can make your own flash movie from some very simple templates. This is my first, semi-amusing effort, but the tool is pretty neat.

Hat tip to SilverBlue.

Prominent Asians with DPRK Links Go Missing

I'm no conspiracist, but friend, and recurring comment-dropper, Shawn, points out to some interesting events -- two prominent Asian men, closely tied with North Korea, have wound up dead and imprisoned in the last few weeks:

Yang Bin's the Chinese-Dutch Flower potentate that was setting up a "self-governing free trade zone" between China and North Korea. He was found gulity in the trial and got 15 years in the Chinese Gulag. The project has since been suspended.

Chung Mong-Hoon's the Hyundai Executive and son of the late founder of Hyundai who defenstrated himself in Seoul. He ran several investment projects in North Korea, including a tourism operation, all of which lost money. After his death, NK suspended all of the current projects.

The Taiwanese tabloids suggest that, in the case of Chung, the party having the most to gain from his death wasn't North Korea, but rather China. Chung wasn't just taking investment from South Korea, but also Hong Kong and Macao (and by extention, China). So Chung was acting as a conduit to launder Chinese and other money into North Korea. Now that Chung is dead, it's unlikely we'll ever know how far the operation extended.

I just think its funny that the two guys primarily responsible for pumping outside cash into North Korea are now out of commission. It certainly bears closer watching.

Not to be outdone (and probably unrelated) here's another tycoon suicide drop, this time in Indonesia:

Interesting.

Governor Coleman

The East Bay Express has picked its horse, Diff'rent Strokes' actor Gary Coleman.

Hat tip to the indispensible California Insider.

Governor Lowers Payments for Drivers

I never cared much for the Naderite Proposition 103 people, but when the Nader crowd is mad at Davis, I can't help but be touched.

The Governor has signed a bill that will allow (they need permission?) one insurance company to match the discounts of another insurance company to win an account. Apparently, this makes some people mad. The Governor, in his defense, claims that this will help car owners.

Steve Maviglio, a Davis spokesman, bristled at accusations of cash-register politics and said the governor signed SB 841 only after state attorneys opined that Proposition 103 does not bar the new measure.

"The fact is, contributions don't play any part in the governor's decision on a bill," Maviglio said. "This (bill) is going to benefit 85 percent of the motorists in this state, and when a bill does that, chances are it's good policy."

If we can save auto insurance consumers -- all drivers in California, required as they are to have insurance -- a hundred bucks, say, give or take, this is great policy. But if we triple vehicle license fees -- costing drivers several hundred bucks a year -- and screw 100% of motorists, that's also good policy?

* * *

I'm getting really, really close here people -- the state GOP may be criminally stupid and probably needs to be destroyed in order to be saved, but perhaps we can go out in a blaze of glory and take this fool with us.

Flynt's got it right

"I may be paralyzed from the waist down," [Flynt] said, "but unlike Gray Davis, I'm not paralyzed from the neck up."

Now that's a campaign slogan.

A big day for the blog

It's been just over six months since I got my first mention from Instapundit. Now, finally, I've got a pull quote.

"A slightly disturbed reader" says Instapundit.

Now that's an endorsement.

More Gray Davis Campaign Songs

Mostly, listening to modern political parody songs is both painful and embarrassing (see, e.g., Russell, Mark), but this fellow -- Glenn Erath, isn't bad.

Rand Simberg points to his Don McLean parody, but I liked this one even better.

Boxer as Poison Pill

Weintraub's got a clever email from one of his readers that suggests the best way to keep Davis in office is to get Boxer to run as a contingent candidate.

This was inevitable

It's also a tad encouraging, actually, that the Democrats in this one-party state of our aren't quite as monolithic as they appear. A good chunk of the Democrat State Senate caucus are going to have a powpow to see if they should endorse a Democrat. Sen. Boxer, Reps. Pelosi, Sanchez, Dooley, Sherman, AG Lockyer, among others, have all signaled that Davis is dead. And that whole Bob Mulholland / Terry McAuliffe instruction to their party ("You'll get nothing and like it!") seems to have crumbled.

"If it's a campaign about Gray Davis, we lose. I think it's pretty clear," said state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland. "My own experience tells me that, and my own constituency as well. And I represent one of the most liberal districts in the state of California. There will not be people coming out motivated to save Gray Davis."

I've always thought that was the killer --- for whatever reason, folks seemed to like Al Gore (and I, for one, liked George Bush), so they got down and voted for him --- but Perata, a serious liberal but not one to sherk the truth, has got this precisely right.

Democrats face a dilemma never before seen in California politics. A politically unpopular governor faces a recall election, which picks up even more support if a Democrat like Feinstein appears on the replacement ballot. Democrats must put their confidence in Davis to defeat the recall, or in Feinstein to save the party, many believe.

True enough. I've always said that DiFi's decision drives this whole thing and the question I have is this: does Dianne Feinstein repay Dick Riordan for his endorsement in the 1994 Senate race by tipping her hand to him. Nobody can beat Feinstein -- Riordan knows that -- and she might want to save him the trouble.

Oh, the humanity!

Mrs Earthling and I express our deepest sympathy to the friends, families and consumers of Jim Beam, as one of its warehouses has burnt to the ground following an apparent lightning strike. Although we are not close to Jim Beam, we both know the importance of a good glass of sipping whiskey and wish for a speedy reconstruction.

Our hearts go out to the spirits of more than 20,000 barrells -- more than a million gallons -- of bourbon which have burned up in a gigantic, tragic waste of alcohol.

This is a dark day for Kentucky and for America.

/s/ The Management
August 4, 2003

French Progress

The march of socialism: Paris to drop inner city speed limits to 18 mph (30 kph) in an effort to curb ozone and encourage folks to use public transit.

This is, perhaps, the most literal manifestation of the timeless socialist rallying cry:

If it moves, regulate it. When it stops moving, subsidize it.

Overnight Success, Overnight Failure

This blogger has removed the middle man.

Hat tip: Tim Blair.

Bocce Ball!

With the most excellent help of Mrs Earthling, Brother Earthling (Mark II), Sister Earthling, and two Earthlings-in-law, as well as my boys John, George, Jon, Derek, Taylor, Holger, Pete, Neil and my neighbor Mike, I am now the proud owner of a Bocce Ball Court.

So, after five and a half hours and three and a half cases of beer, we moved, graded and compacted some 18.5 yards of gravel and dirt. And to show for it, we've gone from this:

To this:

And this:

I believe a good bottle of whisky should be consumed generously until its gone --- no wimpy rationing for me --- and to celebrate our hard work, I broke out my oldest bottle of whisky, a 42-year old, 1959 Mortlach which, if you care to try it yourself and happen to be in London or Edinburgh, can be purchased here.

I shall offer a more complete review of this shortly. --- I did save a few fingers for my benefit... and your edification.

Not Least Their Children

A charming non-condemnation from AP.

Unlike their brothers, the two women were not believed to be wanted for crimes linked to their father's brutal regime. After Saddam ordered their husbands killed in 1996, many saw the sisters as victims of their father's tyranny.

I'm glad that many people saw this. This should give their fatherless children a great deal of comfort.

Connie Corleone detested Michael Corleone for having her miserable, cheating gangster husband killed. And while she hung around and sucked off the Mafia teat, at least she wasn't happy about it.

Friday Quiz

No googling, no peaking, no nothing.

Email me your answers if you'd like, use comments to clarify or make snarky commentary.

(1) Maine is the one state which touches one -- and only one -- other state. What three four states touch two -- and only two -- other states.

Washington (ID, OR), South Carolina (NC, GA), Rhode Island (MA, CT) and Florida (AL, GA)

(2) What four state capitals sit on the Missouri River?

Helena, MT, Pierre, SD, Lincoln, NE, Jefferson City, MO

(3) Name one Battlestar besides the Galatica and the Pegasus (TV and Alan Dean Foster novelization both count as canon).

Atlantia, among others

(4) Who shot James A. Garfield? And why? Bonus points for the lyrics to the song from the Steven Sondheim musical.

Charles J. Giteau, who was denied a chance to be Minister to France

(5) How far do you have to be from the solar system before the diameter of Earth's orbit (approximate 300M kilometers) subtends only one second of arc?

One Parsec (3.26 LY) -- this is definition

(6) How many empty cans of Diet Coke are on my desk?

Five -- at differnet times I would have accepted any positive integer

(7) Which of the following countries have not had one of their citizens/subjects go into space (4): Vietnam, Afghanistan, Denmark, Norway, Mexico, Mongolia, Costa Rica, Australia, Ireland, South Africa.

Interestingly, it's Denmark, Norway, Australia and Ireland. The communist countries all few as guest cosmonauts on Russian missions in the 1980s, American astronaut Chaig-Diaz holds Costa Rican dual citizenship, and South African Mark Shuttleworth paid $20M for a week on the ISS, courtesy of the Russians

(8) Who discovered Uranus? What did he want to name it?

Sir William Herschel. He planned to name the planet George -- not because he wanted to hug it and squeeze it, but because George III then reigned

(9) What is a Bucknard's Everful Purse? What does it do? How do you make it stop working?

AD&D; Miscellaneous Magic Item, Table I; leave one (or more) coins in a BEP and tomorrow you will have 26 of the same coin. Leave it empty for more than 24 hours and it becomes inert, forever.

(10) What is the only distillery on the Isle of Skye? The Isle of Mull?

Talisker; Tobermory

(11) What is my favorite brand of whisky? What is my favorite bottle of whisky?

Glenmorangie; Glenmorangie 25-year Malaga Wood or 1980 Cask Strength Mortlach

(12) What general was in charge of the Manhattan Project? What project did he run immediately before taking over the Manhattan Project?

Maj. General Leslie Groves. He had previously built the Pentagon

N.B.: Winner will be characterized favorably in my forthcoming autobiography "Who Wants Lloyd?" (Copyright 2055)

In Like Flynt

Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt is running for Governor.

"I'm known for more than pornography," said Flynt, who says he's a registered Democrat. "I think that will become evident... People know me. They know I've devoted most of my adult life fighting to expand the parameters of free speech," he said. "I took a bullet for the First Amendment. I'm concerned about our basic freedoms, the erosion that has taken place in the last few years. I would like to motivate people and get them more concerned."

Unlike many who say they want the job, Flynt says that he has a plan on "how to balance the budget without raising taxes."

A Martyr for the First Amendment, with a promise of More Porn*, More Casinos and No New Taxes?

God Bless the United States of America!

* (No links, sorry, this site is strictly PG-13)