In the wake of the hangover over their latest national embarrassment on the world stage, John O’Sullivan asks if Britain is finally becoming un-Dianified.
Let’s Hope
In the wake of the hangover over their latest national embarrassment on the world stage, John O’Sullivan asks if Britain is finally becoming un-Dianified.
Fighting The Good Fight
Dr. Paul Hsieh is fighting against socialized medicine in his home state of Colorado.
Birds And Bees
Via Alan Boyle, here’s an interesting article at the Gray Lady about sexual desire. This part rang true to me:
The results suggest that having a good set of sexual brakes not only dampens the willingness to commit rape or sexual abuse, but the desire as well, giving the lie to notions that
At WOC Today
An interesting discussion on women in combat, and a discourse on the last microcosm of the Cold War, on the Korean peninsula.
World, Flesh, Devil
I was surprised to learn that Virginia hadn’t read Bernal’s classic
Houston, We Have A Kink
Apparently, in addition to the diapers, Commander Nowak’s car had b0ndage photos in it.
Democrats Announce New Diplomatic Policy
WASHINGTON (APUPI) In a new attempt to finally bring a rogue regime to heel, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced today that they plan to diplomatically isolate the White House.
In response to an invitation from the president to come to the White House and discuss a troop funding bill, Senator Reid rejected it, saying “We won’t meet with preconditions. We hope that the road to peace lies down Pennsylvania Avenue, but we can’t trust this administration, and they don’t seem willing to negotiate on our obvious need to get the troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, and to lard the funding bill with things like spinach subsidies, despite the fact that we obviously couldn’t have passed it in the form we wanted without them.”
Speaker Pelosi agreed. “It’s one thing to meet with a peace-loving world leader like Bashar al-Assad, or President Ahmadinejad,” she said. “It’s another to meet with a theocratic warmonger like George Bush. If we dignify his illegitimate regime with a negotiation, how will we ever build international pressure against him, and end his imperialistic ambitions?”
Upon receiving the rejection of its invitation, the White House expressed its disappointment. “We are saddened by the decision of the Congressional majority to refuse to discuss this important issue,” said the White House Press Secretary. “The troops should be above politics like this.”
The leadership on the Hill was having none of it, however.
“We know from long experience that we can’t trust this lying government,” said Senator Reid. “The next step, if this doesn’t force them to recognize reality, will be economic sanctions. We’ll move to cut off funds to Halliburton, open up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to plunge oil prices, and cut off mountain bike exports to Crawford, Texas.”
Only Two More Nights
Until Yuri’s night. It will also be the twenty-sixth anniversary of the first Shuttle launch. Unfortunately for me, it looks like the only Florida party is in Cocoa Beach–nothing in south Florida. Or maybe it’s actually not so unfortunate, since I’m not that big on dance parties.
Oh, and if you’re into virtual celebrations, and are a resident there, there will be one in Second Life as well. I might show up to that one, but I’ll remove my avatar’s legs, so I’ll have an excuse. I’ll also turn down the volume on the dance music, which is a nice feature in Second Life that Real Life doesn’t yet offer, short of earplugs.
If so, I’ll probably either be at Colab, or the International Spaceflight Museum.
Shooting Themselves In The Ballot Box
This seems kind of stupid to me:
The measure would award Maryland’s 10 electoral votes to the national popular vote winner. The plan would only take effect if states representing a majority of the nation’s 538 electoral votes decided to make the same change.
State Sen. Jamie Raskin, a law professor and sponsor of the idea, said Maryland is largely ignored by presidential candidates during campaigns, because they assume the Democratic state will vote for the Democratic candidate.
OK, I can understand the misguided desire to have the president be elected by popular vote. I disagree with it, as did the Founders, who wanted us to be a Republic, and ensure that the smaller states had a more level playing field when it came to electing a president. I can even agree that it’s probably constitutional, albeit dumb, since the legislature can use any method it wants to award its state’s electoral votes. But I don’t understand why Senator Raskin imagines that making Maryland’s electoral votes dependent on the national popular vote will make politicians pay more attention to Maryland’s voters.
It seems to me that if you’re going to get Maryland’s (and other states’) electoral votes regardless of how you do in Maryland, and only need to get a national majority, you’ll put all your resources in the most cost-effective media markets in the major cities. Now it might be that this means that you’ll target Baltimore-Washington, because it’s a fairly dense area, but there’s nothing intrinsic about this plan that would make politicians pay more attention to the state of Maryland per se. And of course, it would screw over Wyomingites, who would be essentially disenfranchised if they followed such a strategy (and perhaps even if not, since the methodology would be skewed even if they didn’t sign on).
Is there someone out there who can get into a (presumably) liberal law professor’s mind and explain this to me?