Dean's World

Two of John Kerry's Band of Brothers have endorsed his candidacy.

That's 15%!

Whoof!

(Not work-safe.)

So here's a question for my white (and other) readers: Have you ever noticed how annoying black people can be?

I mean, seriously. Just admit it: sometimes black folks, they get on your nerves. You want to be all "color doesn't matter" and you want to be all "that nasty crap is in the past" and so on and so forth. You also want to sit there saying, "well I don't discriminate!" and "I don't care about color!" and all that. But come on, you big fat liars. Tell the truth.

Black people: don't they annoy you sometimes?

Tell me all about it. I dare you, you cowards. Come clean. Sometimes, aren't they annoying?

* Update * My God. Have you ever noticed what total pussies most white people are? I asked this question two hours ago and all I get is "hahahaha you're so funny Dean!" and "are you sure you want to ask this?" responses.

* Update 2 * My wife just walked in on me and said, "Are you sure you want to ask this question? Are you crazy?" To which my answer is: YES! Come on, you fishbelly-white, narrow-nosed, thin-lipped jerkoffs. What are you afraid of? What, will God smite you for speaking your mind? Do you really think race relations can get better in America if you don't honestly say what you think?

In November, the Democrats pick up 40 seats in the House, 8 Senate seats, and John Kerry is elected in the greatest electoral landslide since Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Pretend it happens. If so, will you still love America as passionately as ever?

I will.

Jay Caruso has done an excellent job investigating campaign finance ties to the Kerry and Bush camps, and the links between them. It ain't pretty.

The recent campaign finance "reforms" are simply a ridiculous joke, although it's hard not to notice who's benefitting the most from the current laws.

There's one possible solution here. Rather than puffing and acting outraged, just release your military records, Senator, and admit to the charges (like Christmas in Cambodia) that the Swifties made that turned out to be the truth.

"I was a 20-something punk who told some stupid stories, and spouted some horrible Communist propaganda I never should have repeated, and I'm sorry for all that. But I did serve my country, and I have a better vision. Let me tell you about it."

Would that be so hard?

Dear Senator Kerry:

Well I'm sure things are pretty busy and exciting on the campaign trial, so I'll try not to take up too much of your time. I hope this finds you well.

But I've noticed that a tiny little group of veterans who worked side-by-side with you in Vietnam, called the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, has been making major waves. But the funniest part has been how you've reacted to them. I know that from inside the campaign you don't realize how things look on the outside, so I thought you'd want to know: It doesn't look too good from out here, Senator.

First your people tried to claim that these guys were liars and never served with you. When it turned out they did serve with you, your people started threatening to sue stations that showed their ad. While that's still going on, your people also tried claiming these were just a bunch of Republican operatives, but of course that's not true either, as I'm sure you well know.

At one point, you got your friend John McCain to condemn the Swift Boat Vets. But then their leader, Admiral Roy Hoffman, responded publicly and said the following:

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has more than 250 members, many of whom were wounded or highly decorated in Vietnam.

We purchased with our blood and service the right to be heard, to set the record straight about our unit, and to tell the truth about John Kerry's military service record.

We respect Senator McCain's right to express his opinion and we hope he extends to us the same respect and courtesy, particularly since we served with John Kerry, we knew him well and Senator McCain did not.

Senator McCain sort of quieted down after that, and I notice McCain is still campaigning heavily for President Bush. Which means he can't be too mad, even though you keep bringing up McCain as if he's your big brother who'll stop the mean old Swifties from beating you up.

That may not be your intent, Senator, but it's how it looks from out here.

Your latest tack? You're asking that George Bush should make the Swift Boat Vets stop. The complaint? Some Republicans in Texas who have worked with Bush in the past put up a few hundred thousand dollars to create these ads. Got that? Some Republicans who once worked with Bush came up with some cash for this group.

Which is, of course, perfectly legal, and perfectly above-board. Indeed, their names have been publicly available all along. But as you know, Senator, the law makes it illegal for them to coordinate with Bush or even tell him in advance what they're doing.

In the meantime, for the better part of a year, you and your campaign have been silently complicit with racist hate propagandist Michael Moore, and furthermore, everybody who cares knows that you have your own much more extensive, cash-filled web of million dollar organizations supporting you that are as "independent" as the Swift Boat Vets--meaning, they get cash from people who know and like you. That they're just as "connected" to you as the Swifties are to Bush, the main difference being that your groups have a lot, and I do mean a lot, more cash.

As a United States Senator, I'm sure you're familiar with the First Amendment, aren't you? Don't these men who fought and bled alongside you have a 1st amendment right to say their piece? They did serve alongside you personally in Vietnam, and they have a story to tell. Why do you want them to be forcibly silenced, especially when you've been silent for so long in the face of so many other people's horrible slams at President Bush?

What does it say about you, Senator, that rather than release your military records (as Bush has done) and answer your brothers in arms' charges forthrightly, you lie about them, threaten to sue them into silence, and demand that Bush shut them up for you?

I'm going to support you if you win in November, Senator, but if you continue behaving that way, it's going to be very, very hard for me. As a patriot, I'll try my best, I really will. But may I suggest a strategy?

Come clean, Senator. Admit where the Swifties have been proven right (such as about your Christmas In Cambodia tall tales), show why they're wrong (like on at least one your medal citations), and maybe apologize for being a snotty young punk when, in your 20s, you falsely accused your brothers in arms of horrible war crimes that never happened.

People will respect you more if you just come clean, Senator. They really will.

Respectfully,

Dean Esmay

Citizen Journalist

Some time ago, Big Dan, who's always got something interesting going on on his Popping Culture weblog, asked me the following question:

I think you could get a good conversation going on what will happen to the blogosphere...after the elections and initial backlash to the elections.

Clearly, blogging erupted this year because, (a) the technology was finally available, (b) people like to have a voice and (c) it is an election year - note that the majority of the blogs are more than just political - they are selling a point of view, not just posting one. So what happens once the election is over and another won't be around for 4 years? Sure, there will be a month or two of election-backlash, but after that dies down, what? Will blogs peter out? Will there be a 10 percent drop in blogging? 50 percent? 80 percent? Will people change formats? How long can politics get play 48 months away from the next election?

This calls to mind questions about the basic purpose of blogging as well.

Well, this is worth discussing. It's a good question, although from my perspective, Dan's got at least one faulty premise.

First off, most blogs aren't political, or not very.

Political blogging erupted by most accounts in the wake of 9/11, and has been on a fast growth trajectory since then. At this point, I believe a critical mass has been reached, and weblogs have become a permanent part of our political and journalistic culture. How much more influential they will grow I am not sure, but they now, I believe, have as much influence as the old-line political journals (Ms., Mother Jones, The National Review, and etc.).

Speaking for myself, while my weblog has become highly political, it wasn't intended to be when it started it two and a half years ago. Even though I write more about politics than ever right now, still a big chunk of my content is non-political.

For the purely political blogs, I expect a few obvious things to happen after the election, assuming there's a clearcut winner:

If Bush wins, expect left-leaning blogs to grow in popularity. If Kerry wins, expect the opposite to be true. Otherwise, political blogging will simmer down a little, just like punditry will in general. Then it'll start a slow steady growth again, until the next election cycle.

Honestly, if I did not care so deeply and so passionately about or efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, I wouldn't write so much about politics. I'm moderately partisan toward Bush, if not toward everything and everyone in his party. But if it weren't for Iraq and Afghanistan, I didn't think the stakes were so high right now I would probably write nowhere near as much as I do on the subject.

Normally, when it's not election season, I write on the deep philosophical issues underlying politics: what "feminism" really means, what the abortion debate is truly all about, what the underlying assumptions about economics are that drive most people's views, what constitutes sane environmental policy, what "separation of church and state" really means, and so on. These are topics that people never tend to lose interest in, and I always enjoy writing on them. Alas, it's almost impossible to write on them too often right now, since everything winds up being colored by the elections and people's assumption that you're only saying X, Y, or Z because you're a Bush or Kerry or whoever supporter--which I really hate.

Regardless of who wins in November, I frankly won't be entirely happy again as a weblogger until they're over. I don't particularly enjoy the horserace reporting, the petty sniping, the finger-pointing, and so on. I wish the election would be over so we could move on.

But as a person committed to the duties of an informed citizen, I feel I have to write about the election. I just can't wait until it's over--and I have no fear that this weblog will become all that much less popular once it is. Indeed, I know some readers have left me simply because they think I write too much on politics now.

Short answer: the blogosphere will continue to grow after the election. Sure, there'll be a little settling out, but the long-term trend is only upward and outward I think. At least for the next few years.

Well that's my opinion. What do you guys think?

Our amazing efforts in Afghanistan continue to help that country make simply incredible strides toward stability, democracy, freedom, and greater standards of living than ever before.

If you're at all interested in Afghanistan, you really should read the latest good news in Afghanistan roundup!

The latest Carnival of the Capitalists is available for your reading pleasure.

Alice Cooper's biggest nightmare: rock and roll becomes about politics.

Glenn Reynolds has written a small masterpiece. Read it here.

My God I'd be happy to be living in that world.

Arsonists have set fire to a Jewish soup kitchen in central and daubed Nazi symbols on the building, police say, in the latest anti-Semitic act in France.

President Jacques Chirac vowed to pursue those responsible and severely punish them.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the perpetrators could face up to 20 years in prison or even life imprisonment under a new anti-racism measure in France.

"The country's forces are mobilised that criminals who carry out such acts are rapidly arrested and severely punished," he told reporters at the burned-out building where anti-Semitic symbols, including a swatiska in red felt pen, were drawn on the walls.

It was the second anti-Semitic act in the French capital in about a week after vandals last Saturday drew a swastika and wrote "death to the Jews" on a low wall in front of Paris's Notre Dame cathedral early on Saturday.

A wave of such attacks have hit eastern France, with more than 300 tombs or graves desecrated since April -- many in Jewish cemeteries but also some Muslim and a few Christian graves.

"There's no doubt about the stupid and criminal motivations of those who burn down a soup kitchen while inscribing anti-Semitic graffiti," a spokesman for the Jewish representative council in France (CRIF) said.

"It's definitely Jewish hatred which inspires them. The CRIF asks the authorities to promptly arrest and sanction in an exemplary manner the perpetrators of this odious act which besmirches France," he added.

ATHENS — The 2004 Athens Olympics now has an exciting new centerpiece: a huge wooden horse that mysteriously appeared outside the city at dawn. Greek officials theorized that the device must have been left by a wealthy, anonymous donor.

"We are honored by this noble gift, and we welcome it's good tidings with open arms," said Greek President Konstantinos Stephanopoulos. "This can only add to the splendor of these historic Olympic games.

The horse has already been admitted through the Olympic gates, according to officials.

MONTERREY, Mexico - Governments throughout Mexico and Central America are on alert as evidence grows that al-Qaida members are traveling in the region and looking for recruits to carry out attacks in Latin America — the potential last frontier for international terrorism.

The territory could be a perfect staging ground for Osama bin Laden's militants, with homegrown rebel groups, drug and people smugglers, and corrupt governments. U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaida could launch an attack from south of the border, and they have been paying closer attention as the number of terrorism-related incidents has increased since last year.

The strongest possible al-Qaida link is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a 29-year-old Saudi pilot suspected of being a terrorist cell leader. The FBI issued a border-wide alert earlier this month for Shukrijumah, saying he may try to cross into Arizona or Texas.

In June, Honduran officials said Shukrijumah was spotted earlier this year at an Internet cafe in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Panamanian officials say the pilot and alleged bombmaker passed through their country before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in May singled out Shukrijumah as one of seven especially dangerous al-Qaida-linked terrorist figures wanted by the government, which fears a new al-Qaida attack. A $5 million reward is posted for information leading to his capture.

Mexican and U.S. border officials have been on extra alert, checking foreign passports and arresting any illegal migrants. In a sign of a growing Mexican crackdown, eight people from Armenia, Iran and Iraq were arrested Thursday in Mexicali on charges they may have entered Mexico with false documents, although they did not appear to have any terrorist ties.

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's top anti-crime prosecutor, said Mexican officials have no evidence that Shukrijumah — or any other al-Qaida operatives — are in Mexico. But Mexican authorities are investigating and keeping a close eye on the airports and borders.

"The alert has been sounded," Vasconcelos told The Associated Press last month.

In Central America, Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said officials have uncovered evidence that terrorists, likely from al-Qaida, may be trying to recruit Hondurans to carry out attacks in Central America. He did not offer details."

El Salvador authorities last week reinforced security at the country's international airport and along the borders after purported al-Qaida threats appeared on the Internet against their country for supporting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. President Tony Saca, undeterred, is sending the country's third peacekeeping unit — 380 troops — to Iraq.

Terrorists have struck in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the United States. Latin America could be next, analysts say, especially as it becomes harder to operate elsewhere.

Hill, now 62, was removed from the Witness Protection Program for illegal acts but says: "I'm not afraid for my life anymore. Most of the people I informed on have died in prison. And a lot of gangsters, myself included, are Goodfellas fans."

The hills of Mars yielded more tantalizing clues about how water shaped the Red Planet in tests by NASA (news - web sites)'s robotic geologist, Spirit, while its twin, Opportunity, observed the deep crater it climbed into two months ago, scientists said.....

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said Spirit discovered a swath of bedrock that showed signs of being altered by water and may yield clues about the planet's primordial atmosphere.

Scientist believe the bedrock was thrust up from below the lava-covered surface of the vast Gusev Crater, where Spirit landed Jan. 3 and spent months crossing to arrive at a series of promontories dubbed the Columbia Hills.

For the past week, the rover has conducted a series of tests on a rock nicknamed Clovis that is perched on a spur about 30 feet above the plain, chief scientist Steve Squyres said at a briefing on Wednesday.

Both Spirit and Opportunity found ancient evidence of water on Mars earlier in their missions but new data recorded by Spirit's scientific instruments this week suggests that the life-giving liquid was once more plentiful than they thought.

"This is different from the rocks out on the plain, where we saw coatings and veins apparently due to effects of a small amount of water. Here we have a more thorough, deeper alteration, suggesting much more water."

Clovis is situated among rocks that do not show signs of water wear, which Squyres said could help scientists "get a handle on what took place."

"So far we have intriguing clues hinting that this rock Clovis had interacted with liquid water," Squyres said. "We need to understand whether it was cold or hot ...liquid or gas. That should tell us a lot about the alteration by water."

Opportunity, which landed on a flat gray plain on the opposite side of Mars that scientists said was once drenched by a salty sea, planned to investigate a dune field inside Endurance Crater, where the rover has explored since June.

The six-wheeled rovers have operated in Mars' harsh atmosphere more than twice as long as they were designed to but are beginning to experience minor mechanical problems, NASA engineers said. One of Spirit's wheels has lost power, while Opportunity's rock abrasion tool jammed twice last week, engineers said.

Darmon Thornton is really mad at Verizon.

I honestly can't say I blame him, and I don't even care about Bluetooth.

* Update * Russell Beattie says maybe it's not that bad after all, that some of the features he said did't work do work!

As my regular readers know, for years I've been a fan of Ben Stein's writing. Sondra notes an example of why I like him so much that you simply must read.

By the way, yes, he is the same guy from Win Ben Stein's Money and Ferris Bueller.

Last spring Marisa Dudiak took her second-grade class in Frederick County, Maryland, on a field trip to an American Indian farm.

Later, the students wanted to talk about what they saw. But instead of leading a discussion about the trip, Dudiak had the students sign on to their classroom Web log.

There they wrote about learning to use a bow and arrow, sitting inside a tepee and petting a buffalo. The short entries were typical of second-grade writing, with misspelled words and simple sentences.

Still, for Dudiak, the exercise proved more fruitful than a group discussion or a handwritten entry in a personal journal. "It allowed them to interact with their peers more quickly than a journal," she said, "and it evened the playing field." Dudiak said she found that those who were quiet in class usually came alive online.

Classroom Web logs, or blogs, are becoming increasingly popular with teachers like Dudiak. In the blogs, students write about how they attacked a tough math problem, post observations about their science experiments or display their latest art projects.

For teachers, blogs are attractive because they require little effort to maintain, unlike more elaborate classroom Web sites, which were once heralded as a boon for teaching. Helped by templates found at sites like tblog.com and movabletype.org, teachers can build a blog or start a new topic in an existing blog by simply typing text into a box and clicking a button.

"School Web sites are labor-intensive and are left up to administrators and teachers," said Peter Grunwald, an education consultant in Washington who focuses on the technology link between home and school. "With blogging intended to be a vehicle for students, the labor is built in. The work that is required to refresh and maintain an interesting blog is being provided by students."

One way teachers use blogs is to prolong spirited discussions that have been cut short, or question-and-answer periods with guest speakers.

"With blogs, class doesn't have to end when the bell rings," said Will Richardson, supervisor of instructional technology and communications at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, New Jersey, who maintained blogs for two journalism classes he taught last year. Teachers say that the interactivity of blogs allows them to give students feedback much more quickly than before.

Representatives of a rebel Shiite militia said Saturday that they expected the early release of Micah Garen, a 36-year-old American journalist who was taken hostage a week ago on Friday outside a gun shop in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya.

Mr. Garen, whose family home is in New Haven, appeared kneeling before five armed men earlier this week in a video broadcast by Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news channel, along with a threat that he would be executed unless American troops withdrew from the holy city of Najaf.

Appeals on Mr. Garen's behalf to the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia force that has occupied the golden shrine in Najaf and fought for two weeks against American troops, led to forceful statements by a militia representative in Nasiriya denouncing the kidnapping, and saying that Mr. Garen should be released.

Since making that statement, Sheik Aws al-Khafaji, a Nasiriya cleric who is the local representative for Moktada al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army, has worked closely with intermediaries and assured them that Mr. Garen is still alive, and that he will be released.

Intermediaries say the group holding Mr. Garen, which identified itself on the video as the Martyrs Brigade, is part of a loose network of Shiite resistance groups that associate themselves with the Mahdi Army, but may not be under Mr. Sadr's control.

Mr. Khafaji has said that Mr. Sadr himself has issued orders for Mr. Garen to be freed. Hopes that Mr. Garen would be brought to a Mahdi Army office in Nasiriya before dusk on Saturday were disappointed, with spokesmen for the rebel group saying detailed arrangements for the release, including foreign news coverage, remained to be resolved.

Kennedy said he was stopped at airports in Washington, D.C., and Boston three times last March. Airline agents told him he would not be sold a ticket because his name was on a list.

When he asked the agent why, he was told, "We can't tell you."

Each time, a supervisor recognized Kennedy and got him on the flight. But after the third incident, Kennedy's staff called the Transportation Security Administration and asked to clear up the confusion.

That agency said a name similar to Kennedy's was on the watch list. The agency also said that the airlines did not handle the matter properly.

But twice after contacting the agency, Kennedy was stopped again at the airline counter.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed lawsuits in San Francisco and Seattle over this issue, demanding that the government explain how wrongly flagged travelers can get off the lists.

"If they have that kind of difficulty with a member of Congress, how in the world are average Americans, who are getting caught up in this thing, how are they going to be treated fairly and not have their rights abused?" Kennedy asked the official, Asa Hutchinson, under secretary of homeland security.

Kennedy said he'd been misidentified on the watch list when he tried to board airliners between Washington and Boston. He said he was stopped five times as he tried to board US Airways shuttles because a name similar to his appeared on a list or his name popped up for additional screening.

Hutchinson, who apologized for "any inconvenience" to the senator, testified Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the need for the federal government to take over the watch lists, which are administered by the airlines.

Each time, a supervisor recognized Kennedy and got him on the flight. But after the third incident, Kennedy's staff called the Transportation Security Administration and asked to clear up the confusion.

A second prominent lawmaker said Friday that he's been subjected to extra security at airports because his name appears on a list designed to prevent terrorists from boarding planes.

Rep. John Lewis, D - Georgia, a nine-term congressman famous for his civil rights work with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has been stopped 35 to 40 times over the past year, his office said.

Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on border security Thursday that he's been stopped several times because his name appeared on an airline watch list.

Lewis contacted the Department of Transportation, the Department of Homeland Security and executives at various airlines in a so-far fruitless effort to get his name off the list, said spokeswoman Brenda Jones.

Instead, Lewis got a letter from the Transportation Security Administration that he can present to ticket agents indicating he has cleared an identity check with the agency. But the letter warns he might still be subject to extra security checks before being allowed to fly.

An investigation by The Washington Post into what happened that day suggests that neither side has been entirely forthcoming, and that each has withheld information from the public record.

My friend Mr. E Poet (I consider myself privileged to call him that) recently sent me the following story, which will occur (or fail) on September 8th:

Stunt pilots to hook falling stardust sample

I am not even a Shakespeare fan (honestly, I'm not), but I can think of no greater remark than this, sarcastic though it might have originally been intended, yet utterly true nonetheless--and it will stand the same regardless of outcome:

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god — the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals."

In short: whether they should succeed of fail, it is a truly beautiful thing.

Good luck, guys.

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) Militants loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Saturday that they handed over the keys to a revered Muslim shrine to Shiite religious leaders a big step toward resolving a 2-week-old standoff in the holy city of Najaf.

The militants, however, remain in control of the Imam Ali Shrine while final details of the transfer are worked out, said al-Sadr aide Ahmed al-Shaibany.

The keys were handed over to representatives of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who is in a London hospital for treatment of a heart problem, al-Shaibany said.

''We handed over the keys to al-Sistani's office, but the actual handing over of the shrine has not happened yet,'' he said. ''There are some issues that still need to be arranged and we are waiting a committee from al-Sistani's office to finish the procedure.''

He said those issues included handing over gold and money stored in the shrine compound, but gave no other details.

Al-Sadr's militia moved their guns out the shrine on Friday, but the militiamen themselves stayed. Negotiators wrangled into the night over getting the militants out of the compound.

The removal of weapons Friday and pledge to hand over keys to religious authorities was seen as a key step toward a resolution of the two-week faceoff in Najaf that has killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds in fighting between Muqtada al-Sadr's militia and a joint U.S.-Iraq force.

Buried in the shrill and even hysterical charges flying in all directions over the long-planned post-convention attack ads directed at Kerry are at least two major revelations — one predictable and the other remarkable.

At least $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds that was given to Iraqi ministries by the former U.S.-led authority there cannot be accounted for, according to a draft U.S. audit set for release soon.

The audit by the Coalition Provisional Authority's own Inspector General blasts the CPA for "not providing adequate stewardship" of at least $8.8 billion from the Development Fund for Iraq that was given to Iraqi ministries.

The audit was first reported on a Web site earlier this month by journalist and retired Col. David Hackworth. A U.S. official confirmed the contents of the leaked audit cited by Hackworth were accurate.

The development fund is made up of proceeds from Iraqi oil sales, frozen assets from foreign governments and surplus from the U.N. Oil for Food Program. Its handling has already come under fire in a U.N.-mandated audit released last month.

Among the draft audit's findings were that payrolls in Iraqi ministries under Coalition Provisional Authority control were padded with thousands of ghost employees.

In one example, the audit said the CPA paid for 74,000 guards even though the actual number could not be validated. In another, 8,206 guards were listed on a payroll but only 603 people doing the work could be counted.

Beth Donovan has begun the Carnival of the Recipes. Man, some of those look good too....

I would like to see Senator Kerry, rather than shrieking that it's all Bush's fault, simply answer this ad's allegations.

Predictions: Kerry will continue to try to make this about who gave the Swift Boat Vets money rather than about what they're saying.

Sondra notes an effort to counter the work of racist, pro-fascist hate-freak Michael Moore.

In my rambling essay on sex, violence, and western civilization last week, I made extensive reference to a site called "Body in Mind."

The Egoist not long ago interviewed the proprieter of Body & Mind, a site dedicated to the non-sexually-explicit depiction of the female form, right here. The guy's just a little overserious, especially because few women can actually aspire to the kind of physical perfection he likes to portray in his wares. Then again, few men can aspire to Michelangelo's David, or just about any Greek or Roman statue, either.

I'll also be blunt: so far as "unrealistic body images" go, this guy's wares are miles ahead of what they peddle at women's magazines such as Cosmopolitian, Elle, or Vogue.

I intentionally invoked a well-known phrase recently, and a reader over at Jessica's Well named Vaughn called me on it. He's completely, and I mean completely, called me out on it. I wish I were so clever with a turn of phrase but I'm not. Read about it here.

Attention world: I was intentionally being snarky and faux-clever. That is all.

All that aside, it is pretty cool, aint it? (Evil grin.)

Jessica's Well thinks something Dean said is quite delicious.

I'm sure I'll come to regret this in some way 30 years hence.

Swift Boat Vets author and advocate John O'Neill will be on gun-loving freak Cam Edwards' show on NRA Radio today at 3:45 Eastern Time today. This is an open-mic, call-in radio show that you can view (or just listen to) over the Internet for free.

Call in. You can ask any question you want. Question his integrity, question his story, question his version of the events. Go ahead, he's just daring you. You can call in and get on the air and say anything you want. Listen to it here.

Go on, guys. Call O'Neill (or Cam) a liar, a partisan hack, an un-patriotic creep and a fascist, or just a very very wrong guy, if that's what you believe.

Go on, I dare you. Call in and tell the world why John O'Neill and his friends are liars. I'll even go one further: if Cam cuts you off or distorts your words, I promise to allow you to make any claim you like right here on this weblog, and to publish it unmodified, and even reprint it on my front page tomorrow morning.

Go on. Tell us all why the Swift Boat Vets for Truth are liars. We're listening, and we're watching. I won't censor any comments left to this post. Go on, tell us, tell us why it's all lies. I'll reprint it all, whatever you say, without a single modification.

(By the way, I didn't tell Cam I was going to do this. But I'm about to shoot him a note now that I've posted it. Either he's going to love it, or he's going to be really mad at me. Probably he won't be mad, but now he's on the spot. Heh. Sorry Cam. You asked for it.)

Oh, and before some cretin asks? I've never even spoken to Cam or Mr. O'Neill, and not one penny has passed between us. I just find this whole thing delightful.