Saturday, July 26, 2003

Fellow Illinois blogger Archpundit has been kind enough to blogroll me and I am long overdue in returning the compliment. I am very bad at keeping up with local politics so I'm happy that somebody is on top of it.
Interrupting weekend because this deserves a good rant.

It won't surprise anyone here that I don't feel one way or the other about the flag. I'm about as likely to wave it as I am to burn it meaning I tend to leave it alone. But let's pretend I did feel strongly about the flag, took care to bring it in out of the rain, fold it, store it, and never touch the ground. Then I would be pissed. I would be super-pissed. And I would have been pissed long before this at the way the flag as been made into a logo.

One might say the same about the use of the peace sign, and I would tend to agree except on one point. There isn't a movement to keep the peace sign sacred and pass laws against "desecrating" it.

Friday, July 25, 2003

I am taking a sanity day. Real life is encroaching. Meanwhile it's Friday. Go do something moderately irresponsible.

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Amb. Joseph Wilson on The Daily Show tonight.

I think it 'll be good antedote for Dick Morris last night. I think Jon nearly bit his tongue in two.

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Chicago Musings

Sometimes I love living here.

Durbin accused the White House of spreading allegations--which the senator denied--that he disclosed classified information and should be ousted from the panel.

Durbin said that on Friday that reporters began calling his office saying that an anonymous White House official had informed them that Durbin had disclosed classified information and, as a result, Republican senators were trying to remove him from the intelligence panel.


And sometimes...

The Chicago Police Department apologized Tuesday for issuing a community alert that described a man suspected in a series of sexual assaults as resembling hip hop artist and actor Ice Cube after a local television station aired one of the rapper's videos during its evening newscast.



Welcome to the third world.


Hey, Mississippi. You guys have something of a PR problem. You might want to consider easing up a bit. Stuff like this really doesn't help.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of inmates at the Parchman penitentiary alleged they were subjected daily to excessive heat, human excrement, biting insects and the ranting of psychotic prisoners.

The state contends that conditions on death row do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, as the judge had ruled.

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps has said some measures are already in place, while other changes, including daily showers for inmates when the heat index rises to 90 degrees, would cause security problems.


"Virtute et Armis" indeed.


Monday, July 21, 2003

The Mighty Reason Man has been having a hilarious exchange with some of the dumbest people on the planet.

Nuking the moon as a massive display of force is a stupid idea. I should not have to say that. In fact I'm pretty sure if you stopped random people on the street and asked them if they thought nuking the moon would end terrorism their answers would range from, "Um, no. What does the moon have to do with terrorism?" to "Are you on crack? Get the hell away from me."

So rather than examine the tortured logic that's behind this plan (and the Mighty Reason Man has done that already) let's look at the minds behind the madness. In away it makes sense. We attacked Iraq because the terrorists who attacked us were--well not Iraqis. Why not attack the moon because --well the terrorists like it? Because you know if the terrorists can see the moon and we can see the moon than they win!

But the important thing isn't logic. It isn't even terrorism. It's blowing shit up, because let's face it Shock And Awe pretty much flopped at the box office. And to be honest I've never quite trusted the moon. One day it's full, then it's not, pick a freaking shape already! It's big, far away. I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

These people don't deserve the blogspace I'm giving them but they sure are fun to laugh at. One hopes that they'll rejoin reality soon where Darth Saddam isn't hiding in the waxing and waning Death Star and we can explain to them that actions particulary out-of-proportion, pointless, violent actions, tend to have repurcussions.

UPDATE: There is some interesting back and forth about the physics of detonating of nuclear bomb on the moon that the more mathematically inclined may find interesting, and is actually worth looking that. This doesn't change the fact that nuking the moon is the dumbest idea ever.