May 2005 Archives

Vanity Fair says he's former FBI official W. Mark Felt.

The TPMCafe is now open.

This weekend marks the 270th anniversary of the Arners (originally Anners) arrival in America.

More information on *rner family history here.

Thanks to Joe Erner for his research and work on the website.

I take it these guys knew WWII ended and simply liked living in the Philippine jungle.

Kevin Drum finds more evidence that the oil supply is becoming a problem--from the oil industry itself. A ExxonMobil report suggest that we have all but reached peak oil production in all the non-OPEC countries. Moreover, there's a real question as to whether OPEC countries can keep pace with even the more optimistic demand estimates.

In other words, don't hold your breath waiting to see $1/gallon gas again anytime soon.

Wow. Taken away from the Capitol in handcuffs no less. No shortage of drama in Nashville this morning. News conference scheduled at noon.

A bicycling event in Washington, D.C., gets canceled thanks to the security headaches:

Since 1999 BikeDC has been the most visible feature of WABA's mission. It has provide us with an opportunity to educate people of all ages in proper cycling technique in a safe and fun environment, and to improve our advocacy efforts, both through membership recruitment and by calling the attention of local elected officials and the public at large to the fact that bicycling is important for healthy and sustainable communities. However, because of the unique security challenges we now face in DC, the number of agencies and jurisdictions involved in the permitting process for the event has increased dramatically. Accordingly, WABA needs to take time out in 2005 to evaluate whether to continue the event in the future or to achieve our goals in other ways.

I must have missed the law enforcement bulletin warning of foreign males peddling suspicious-looking Treks, Giants, and Cannondales.

Alas:

It was a culinary rebuke that echoed around the world, heightening the sense of tension between Washington and Paris in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. But now the US politician who led the campaign to change the name of french fries to "freedom fries" has turned against the war.

Walter Jones, the Republican congressman for North Carolina who was also the brains behind french toast becoming freedom toast in Capitol Hill restaurants, told a local newspaper the US went to war "with no justification".

It appears much of that irrational wartime exuberance is drying up. Perhaps we need some new SUV magnets and country music songs to keep the fire burning.

A Baptist church sports a sign which reads "The Koran needs to be flushed."

Regardless of what you think of the Koran, this is an ineffective way of doing anything other than stir people up.

Free speech? Are you kidding? We're at war!

A congressman says comedian Bill Maher's comment that the U.S. military has already recruited all the "low-lying fruit" is possibly treasonous and at least grounds to cancel the show.

Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., takes issue with remarks on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, first aired May 13, in which Maher points out the Army missed its recruiting goal by 42 percent in April.

"More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club," Maher said. "We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies."
. . .
"I think it borders on treason," Bachus said. "In treason, one definition is to undermine the effort or national security of our country."
. . .
"I don't want (Maher) prosecuted," Bachus said. "I want him off the air."

It's great we have these kind of people running the country. I didn't see the aforementioned comment, but the Michael Jackson reference pretty strongly suggests that the statement was made in humor--or treasonous humor, if you will.

I'm getting tired of rightists breaking out the "treason" card whenever someone says something too critical of America or the "war on terror."

I wouldn't want to be a male police officer charged with enforcing this law.

Josh Marshall gets at the crux of why yesterday's heralded compromise probably isn't a long-term solution:

And the main issue isn't resolved so much as it's delayed. The moderate Republicans agree to preserve the filibuster so long as the Democrats use it in what the moderate Republicans deem a reasonable fashion. And yet the use of the filibuster, by its very nature, almost always seems unreasonable to those whom it is used against.

Exactly. From what I've seen, there's no definition for "extraordinary circumstances." So what does it mean? In practice, it apparently will mean whatever these 14 "moderate" senators say it means. And there's no guarantee the consensus shown yesterday will withstand the stiff winds of a Supreme Court confirmation fight.

Moreover, as Mr. Marshall notes, the agreement fails to include a White House commitment not to select far-right nominees which would be the basis for another filibuster fight. My hunch is that this episode merely serves as a flashing red cape, emboldening the Dobson/Frist/Bush coalition to send an even more radical appointment when they have the chance. You gotta maintain the tough guy appearance to keep the red meat crowd happy. And that won't happen through compromise.

Makes sense to me:

[QUESTION]: Do you think that [the Iraqi] insurgence is getting harder now to defeat militarily?

BUSH: No, I don't think so. I think they're being defeated, and that's why they continue to fight.

Uh, if you're defeated, doesn't that mean you stop fighting?

Timothy Noah conducted a short reader poll and established the relative value of NY Times columnists as follows ($3.13 being the line separating "above normal" from "below normal":

Paul Krugman: $6.90

Thomas L. Friedman: $4.10

Frank Rich: $3.92

Maureen Dowd: $3.42

Nicholas Kristof: $2.35

Bob Herbert: $1.42

David Brooks: $1.39

John Tierney: $0.31

It's notable that an economist tops the unscientific survey, since most people don't think of economics as being that interesting. I know he doesn't just write about that, but it does illustrate that interesting writing can come from virtually any field.

Ouch.

Heh.

The Volunteer State embarrassment continues:

The Republican leader, Bill Frist (Tenn.), was asked why he, the head of the anti-filibuster movement, had voted to uphold the filibuster of a judge in 2000. Frist at first stammered -- "Mr. President, the, in response, the Paez nomination, we'll come back and discuss it" -- and then settled on an answer: "It's not the cloture votes, per se," he said, using the term for filibuster-breaking votes. "It's the partisan leadership-led use of cloture to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees."

Kill? Assassinate? My, what language! Did Dr. Frank Luntz recommend this talk to woo the religious rightists as we march toward 2008?

As some of you may have noticed, my website account was suspended last night--the second time that's happened in a month. No, I haven't be storing a bunch of illegal music or porn--I've been the apparent victim of comment spam attacks.

After the last shutdown, I upgraded to MT 3.15 and installed an updated MT Blacklist. I thought that was sufficient protection; apparently it's not.

Currently, commenting is disabled for "unregistered" users while I try to sort through this issue. So if you aren't registered at TypeKey, or whatever it is, you may not be able to comment. Sorry.

John Jay Hooker writes an interesting--and to me somewhat surprising--letter to Senate Majority Leader Frist in which he contends that Senate Rule XXII(2) because it is in conflict with U.S. Constitution Article II, Section 2, Paragraph 2. His conclusion:

However, there is no question in my mind that the Founders intended for the President to nominate anyone he wants to the Federal bench as the Constitution has no age, residency or citizenship requirements for Federal judges, and moreover, it appears to me that the Founders intended for the President to have an up or down vote in the Senate on his nominees and they should be confirmed with a majority of those voting.

Wouldn't this interpretation also preclude the Senate Judiciary Committee from withholding nominees from a floor vote? It seems if the Senate can't use its rules to interfere with a majority floor vote, it shouldn't have rules to prevent that vote either.

The KNS has an article on the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine's "Fat Camp," where owners send their pets to lose weight. According to one study, 6 out of 10 U.S. pets are overweight.

I've got a cute little overweight cat here, but I don't think Fat Camp is in her future. I don't think she'd fare too well on the underwater treadmill.

I hadn't followed the case, but based on reading this article, I'm surprised that an amusement park operator was found criminally liable for the death of a woman who fell from a ride.

Based on the story, it doesn't seem like the prosecution met the burden of showing the defendant acted in a manner which showed blatant disregard for the life of the customer. Of course I didn't see the testimony.

At any rate, I guess the jury made a statement to all the tourist traps in Sevier County.

For sometime I've been thinking about upgrading my bike transportation system. No, not my vehicle--though that would nice--what I use to hold the bicycle. I'm currently using an inexpensive trunk rack, but with a new bike on the way, I've been yearning for something more secure and sporty.

So yesterday I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Yakima roof rack from Agee's Bicycles. I got what I presume to be one of the better deals available: a 20% sale, free shipping, and no sales tax (which would be almost 10% locally). Nevertheless, I winced a bit when I hit "place order" because it's still a nice chunk of change.

This won't be news to anyone, but I'm struck by the difference in shipping services. Within a few hours of the order, Agee's e-mailed me the tracking number so I can monitor the UPS delivery. at the UPS website, I can see that it has already left Richmond, VA, and is supposed to arrive here tomorrow.

This contrasts sharply with a recent order I made at Performance Bicycles. I ordered May 1, they allegedly shipped on May 3 (USPS), and I still haven't received my goodies. Yes, 13 days and counting. I'm not sure where they are shipping from, but the headquarters is in North Carolina. What are they using, pony express? This punches a hole in that "world is getting smaller" theory, doesn't it?

I sure hope I don't have to return anything for an exchange; might be July before I see it.

UPDATE: The goods just arrived! No wonder it took so long; they came all the way from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Why it takes the USPS two weeks to move a couple boxes one state over is beyond me.

Last week when the White House and Capitol were evacuated thanks to the Cessna scare, I was willing to cut Mr. Bush a little slack for being out bicycling at the time. After all, I'm not one to fault a guy for being out cycling on a nice day. Granted, we're talking about the supposed most powerful man in the world here, not your average Joe. But whatever.

But today I learn that our "Commander in Chief" wasn't even aware that (1) 30,000 people in D.C. (including his wife) had been evacuated, (2) the continuity of government plan was initiated, and (3) fighter jets had been scrambled, until 36 minutes after the "all-clear" had given!

Despite the 9/11 Pet Goat fiasco (or more accurately, because of it) this is stunning. You'd think the White House handlers would have learned a lesson and at least attempted to portray the president as being "in charge." But I guess if you're in a situation where seconds count, there's only time for the most essential tasks.

It's nice to see that the Secret Service did their job and took care of the most essential elements in the Executive Branch during a potential crisis. You know, the people who are really in charge. Meanwhile, I'm sure Mr. Bush enjoyed a nice, peaceful bike ride.

UPDATE: Commenters at AMERICAblog are contending this only illustrates that the Cessna scare wasn't a real emergency. Maybe so. At the time, I thought all the brouhaha was an overreaction to a high-flying Cessna, but I'm not a terrorism security expert. At any rate, if the Secret Service is evacuating people (warranted or not), the president should know what's going on. It's that simple.

I'm not an authority on parenting. And, sadly, don't even possess a great deal of expertise on "courting." But this whole mindset seems rather bizarre quaint to me:

I define courtship as the discovery of a life-partner for a daughter under the direct oversight of the father. Any man seeking to beg, borrow or steal a daughter's hand without her father's endorsement is seeking to gain, in unlawful ways, "property" not his own. Daughters are Daddy's girls in the objective sense, and this particular daughter rejoices in that truth. I am owned by my father. If someone is interested in me, he should see him.

Suffice it to say, an awful lot of women have gotten themselves in bad situations by taking these beliefs too literally.

More commentary here and here.

In the newsprint business, there are mistakes and there are mistakes. There's your typical typos, misspellings, and misidentified photos . . . and then there's this:

Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.

Editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.

The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza.
. . .
On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the United States.

"We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.

Yeah. Sorry about all those dead people. Next time we'll try to make sure our sources are credible.

UPDATE: Upon further review, it's unclear who's telling the truth here. Looks like this one is best read in government-skepticism mode.

Fox News style.

In fairness to FNC, when the chaos of a breaking news story hits, a news organization goes into FIFR (first in, first reported) mode--similar to what they do when school/business closings start rolling in. Since the dedicated RNC fax line is probably the one closest to the on-air studio (for convenience), that news would naturally get out immediately after reports from the White House and Congress.

. . . is elementary school recess made out to be a form of religious persecution.

In claiming that students should apparently be allowed to do whatever they please during recess time, a guy says:

"I think we understand that the school does not have a monopoly over children. They're not robots," he said.

Does the school treat students as "robots" by having them sit at desks? Or by imposing a class schedule? What about that whole classroom standards thing? Sounds pretty robotic to me.

An elementary school isn't out of bounds in developing a program which encourages physical activity. Especially given the child obesity problem we have today.

Ouch.

Blair County, PA is charging inmates $50 for child visits.

Granted, there are some inmates you might not want the kids around. But as a general rule this is a poor way to treat families.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Minutemen may patrol Texas border in October. Some contend that the Minutemen cause more problems than they solve, and that they simply divert the flow of illegals to other areas. Moreover, many parts of the Texas border aren't as well suited for this type of operation as the open spaces of Arizona are.

Without getting into the merits of the Minutemen effort, I've had a question about their people: isn't it a sign that something is missing in your life if you volunteer to spend hours in a desert, just sitting there watching for someone to show up? Doesn't seem like that glamorous of a pastime to me.

These Iraqi suicide bombings are happening so frequently I can't keep track of them all

At least 370 people have been killed in Iraq over the past two weeks in the latest wave of violence.

But why should I, or our liberal media, focus on the negative? Think of the progress. After all, these terrorists are bound to run out of bombs sooner or later. This just accelerates the march toward freedom.

Good:

A Baptist preacher accused of running out nine congregants who disagreed with his Republican politics resigned Tuesday, two days after calling the issue "a great misunderstanding."

Speaking from the pulpit during a meeting at East Waynesville Baptist Church, the Rev. Chan Chandler told church members that it would "cause more hurt for me and my family" if he stayed.

What about the harm he was causing the church? He had no business abusing his position for partisan purposes, and should have apologized for doing so.

Per the News Sentinel, TDOT now has a Knoxville traffic camera website.

I'm not sure if the system is currently working, because I don't see any traffic problems. Of course none of the cameras in West Knoxville appear to be online yet.

If we're going to have big brother, at least give us something like this, that we can use.

Despite the plethora of cameras that can be swung around 360 degrees, TDOT officials emphasize they are not spying on motorists and will not use the system for law enforcement. Dahlinger said TDOT doesn't record the camera images.

"We don't record anything because, if we did, we'd be bombarded with requests from attorneys for videos of crashes," he said.

The system also will have more than 200 speed sensors, most powered by solar panels, which will alert the Transportation Management Center employees of congestion problems. Dahlinger said the devices don't record the speed of individual vehicles, but of the overall traffic.

Anyone else have trouble believing they don't record or can target individual vehicles? Hasn't that become Homeland Security doctrine by now?

Countdown with Keith Olbermann has joined the auction craze.

Hmmm. With a "0" feedback score, can this seller be trusted?

Since my mom was going to traveling away on Mother's Day, I opted to do a family outing thing on Saturday. So the folks and I loaded up our bicycles and drove down to Tellico Plains.

We parked at the visitor's center, and started peddling eastward on 165, aka the Cherohala Skyway. The Skyway follows the Tellico River for approximately five miles.

It was a picture perfect day with blue skies and temperatures in the 70s. Thanks to our recent rains, the river was flowing at a healthy volume. Although traffic was heavier than normal (being the weekend), the road was still relatively peaceful. A majority of the travelers were motorcyclists (the Skyway is a biking favorite). At one point, we passed a caravan of about twenty of them.

About five miles from Tellico Plains, the Skyway veers away from the river. We followed the secondary road which continues along the water. The climb is gradual, making it a comfortable ride for even the infrequent cyclist. It's a real a scenic ride going up the narrow valley. You get a great view of the water splashing over the rocks.

About 11 miles from Tellico Plains, we reached Bald River Falls.

The road goes right in front of the waterfall; this shot is taken from the bridge. Thanks to the heavier water flow, you could feel the mist of the falls up on the bridge. I thought about climbing down below to get a close up view, but cycling shoes don't make for good rock climbing.

After a few minutes there, we turned around and headed back downstream. I was still feeling a little frisky, so when I got back to the intersection with 165, I turned right and headed up the Skyway. I rode about 11 miles (to the first big overlook) before the car caught up. Suffice it to say, that climb will cure you of any excess energy real fast. After looking uphill for a while, you reach the point--and I was getting close--where the mental challenge begins to rival the physical one. In other words, the hill starts getting to your head,

Since it was getting late, and I'd had enough, I loaded up the bike and we drove a few more miles up the Skyway. I was surprised to see that the trees at the higher elevations haven't started growing leaves yet. And it's May! But although Spring hasn't reached all the foliage, it has reached the insect population. It was an interesting experience looking at barren limbs while swatting at gnats--a clash of winter versus summer.

After soaking in the beauty of a few more evening vistas, we turned around and headed back to Knoxville.

All in all, a very enjoyable day.

This comment, from a former senior CIA agent in Afghanistan, is interesting:

MR. RUSSERT: Before you go, will we ever capture Osama bin Laden?

MR. SCHROEN: I think with the capture of Al-Libbi recently--gives some hope that the Pakistanis will cooperate if we put enough pressure on them, and maybe we end up doing it unilaterally but I think we're going to get him within the next three to four months.

MR. RUSSERT: Three to four months.

MR. SCHROEN: Well, that's my hope.

This is a little at odds with what Mr. Schroen said earlier in the interview, when he implied that the Pakistani government really didn't want to capture bin Laden, for fear of the domestic turmoil it might spawn. Perhaps he has wind of something at work behind the scenes.

The auction has officially gotten crazy.

With an item like this, you have to question whether all the bids are serious, but it's jumped from $600 to $16,000+ in the past 24 hours. Still another day of bidding left.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation website has a "VideoLog" feature which allows you to view "video" of what you would see if you were traveling down select roads across the state. Ostensibly, bicyclists and pedestrians can use this tool to determine if road conditions on a route are suitable for travel.

Unfortunately, I believe you have to use Microsoft Internet Explorer for the site, which crashed twice while I was playing around with it. But if you can get it to work properly, it's pretty cool.

Kevin Drum, sums up the "revelations" from the leaked British memo:

By the summer of 2002 George Bush had already decided on war regardless of Saddam Hussein's actions; democracy promotion was not even mentioned in passing as a reason for the war; postwar reconstruction was an issue of no concern; and the "marketing campaign" for the war was deliberately timed to coincide with midterm elections.

The only surprise here is that it surfaced in a government memo.

Interesting that I saw virtually nothing about this on TV news this week. Too busy covering runaway bride, Jacko, and American Idol hanky panky, I suppose.

Broder examines the new budget:

What does it do about the deficits? If you believe Putnam, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other Republicans, this budget "reduces the deficit in half over four years."

But if you read the fine print, here's what you find: The budget envisages the national debt increasing by $683 billion next year; by $639 billion the second year; by $606 billion the third year; by $610 billion the fourth year; and by $605 billion the fifth year.

As Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee asked, "Where is the deficit cut in half?"

I wonder if some of these leaders could have made it through high school if they'd grown up in the "No Child Left Behind" era.

Oh, and there's this from Cato:

President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years. His 2006 budget doesn�t cut enough spending to change his place in history, either.

Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush�s first term. The federal budget as a share of the economy grew from 18.5 percent of GDP on Clinton�s last day in office to 20.3 percent by the end of Bush�s first term.

I guess President Clinton's "the era of big government is over" was over once he left office.

While other sites are celebrating millions of visitors, we here at Resonance are celebrating a milestone of our own. Sometime today we should receive our (don't laugh aloud) 50,000 visitor!

If you are the lucky guest, you win a free screen shot of the Site Meter, provided you know how to save it. Otherwise, you win nothing. Thanks for playing. We might really blow the budget when 100,000 rolls around.

Per this article I see that a Cades Cove planning group has entered Phase II in its effort to improve the visitor experience while protecting the environment.

Phase II "expected to last 22 months, will include additional data collection, refinement of the five alternatives, environmental assessment and analysis and more public involvement."

I can save them most of the 22 months. In order to make the visitor experience more pleasant, they need to repave the loop road and make it at least five to ten feet wider, adding many more pull over spots. Frankly, a passing lane sounds like a good idea to me, though it would admittedly add some new problems.

If you can't tell, I'm not a big fan of riding behind a pokey car or waiting in line because some out-of-staters spotted a squirrel or deer in the woods. I know this impatience kind of goes against the spirit of the place, but if I'm in a vehicle, I like to keep moving. If I want go slow and take my time, I'll get out and walk.

This is one of the more unusual Capitol Hill gatherings of support for a bill I've noticed in a while.

I have no idea what the prospects are for the Breastfeeding Promotion Act. Since a Democrat is promoting it, probably close to zero. But if it did become law, it would be evidence that Congress will use tax incentives to promote just about anything.

I believe you should now be able to post a comment without my approval. I had to uninstall an older version of MT Blacklist, then install a newer version. I just ran a test and it worked.

Note, however, that I reserve the right to delete comments if I don't like the content or the commenter.

Wow. These people are hardcore:

It's less than a week since the tiny Afghan village community witnessed the execution of 25-year-old Bibi Amena for adultery, but by Tuesday life appeared to have returned to normal. Bibi was sentenced to death by local religious leaders in the Spingul valley in the isolated northeastern province of Badakhshan.

Her crime was to be found in the company of a man she was not married to.
. . .
The killing was even endorsed by Amena'a mother.

"When the verdict was announced they came to consult me and I said, 'kill her' she said, without emotion. "I am proud and happy that she [Amena] was killed, because she undermined the honour of the village."

Quite a contrast from our so-called "culture of life" in America. Here we have people getting all bent out of shape and passing emergency acts of congress when someone stops artificially feeding a woman whose been brain dead for more than a decade. There, they don't appear to be so concerned about such matters.

At any rate, these type of incidents illustrate that despite globalization, we are literally still a world from some people on the other side of the globe.

Ha ha. It's a miracle.

It looks like another major controversy has come to an end as an LA area television station will change 75 billboards which read "Los Angeles, CA Mexico."

Granted, I don't live in area with much ethnic tension, and that may effect how one views this kind of thing, but I really don't get what compels some people to make a big fuss about this kind of thing. It's not disparaging to anyone. But there's this:

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, said the change was a small victory in the larger battle of enforcing the nation's immigration laws and securing its borders.

"Those signs offended people across the country for two sensitive reasons. There's documentation that some large corporations are contributing to our illegal immigration problem and secondly, a large number of illegal aliens and their political activists don't respect or acknowledge America's territorial jurisdiction over the area and have repeatedly said, 'It's our land and we are taking it back.'"

I know many Americans don't like illegal aliens for various reasons, but are they really worried the group might "take back" land to Mexico?

The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization has posted cycling map. If you're wanting to bike in and around downtown Knoxville, this may give you some help on which roads to use. Of course your "comfort level" on the listed roads may vary.

Interestingly, the map doesn't mark the roads immediately west of the City/County Building as "steep grades." Guess I'm just a wimp.

More bicycle-related resources here.

Time to talk terror again:

Al Qaeda is still "very active" recruiting and seeking to attack the United States, although it has been hurt since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Monday.

"The enemy that appeared on 9/11 is wounded and off-balance, and on the run -- yet still very active, still seeking recruits, and still trying to find ways to hit us," said Cheney, who reviews intelligence on threats daily.

Interesting how little we heard about Al Qaeda in the months immediately following the election. But I guess that's one of the neat things about having an invisible enemy: if you don't talk about it for a while, people will forget about it; then you can whip it out again whenever you want to change the subject.

The Tennessee legislature is at it again with its annual consideration of a bill removing the helmet requirement for motorcyclists.

Although I generally favor granting individuals as much personal freedom as possible, I think I lean the other way on this one. I balance the competing interests, and this seems to weigh in favor of safety: the public cost for this elective risk is significant, given what I consider to be the relatively minor nuisance of wearing a helmet.

As the article points out, the $10,000 insurance requirement is a joke; motorcycle crash victims with head injuries typically face hospitalization bills well above $10,000.

At any rate, there's a Darwinian element to this whole debate. For my part, I'd hate to risk bouncing my unprotected noggin on the road while chugging away on a bike going 18 mph, much less cruising around at 65+ mph.

Because some stupidity is worth repeating to expose it:

Federal judges are a more serious threat to America than Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed yesterday.

"Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings," Robertson said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"I think we have controlled Al Qaeda," the 700 Club host said, but warned of "erosion at home" and said judges were creating a "tyranny of oligarchy."

Confronted by Stephanopoulos on his claims that an out-of-control liberal judiciary is the worst threat America has faced in 400 years - worse than Nazi Germany, Japan and the Civil War - Robertson didn't back down.

"Yes, I really believe that," he said. "I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together."

Kind of comical until it hits you: who do these people continue to get national air time?

Via Eschaton.

UPDATE: Apparently there's something even worse than liberal judge: a liberal Muslim judge.

Every now and then we get letters. And sometimes I actually read them. From the mail bag:

Les Jones sends this link on The Barkley Marathons. Wow. I thought my half marathon was bad.

Robin e-mails on Watching America. Want to know what people in Istanbul think about the runaway bride? Me neither. But you might be able to find out here. The site purports to link to "news about the U.S. written outside the U.S."

jeff-perado points out the enlightenment going on at Janicek Online. An example:

The unintended side-effect of this mass illegal immigration is the fact that so many of them refuse to assimilate to our culture, i.e., refusing to learn and speak our language.

Of course this is also a bigoted statement. I have no right to expect that if someone wants to illegally invade my country, they should at least have the courtesy to learn my language. Though, it would be nice to be able to order a Big Mac without having to bring an interpreter.

I also have no right to expect English to be spoken in an English speaking country. Think about that for a minute: we can no longer expect immigrants to speak English in America without being branded a racist. That�s what "progressivism" has given us.

Michael Savage couldn't have said it better himself!

If we want to create an incentive for immigrants to learn English, I've got a simple solution; no constitutional amendments needed. Just force them to listen to me attempt to speak Spanish; that should prompt them to want to figure out English real fast.

This is a neat concept for a child's first bike; don't know how well it actually performs.

When I was little I don't think I had the best experience with training wheels. They may not have been properly configured. It seemed to take me longer than usual to get the hang of riding and lose the trainers. Either that or I had a bad sense of balance and want to blame it on the training wheels. Ha. Anyway, I seem to have overcome the slow start.

Meet the Press funny:

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe your Republican colleagues will support 40-percent reduction for retirees who make $90,000?

SEN. ALLEN: I haven't done a wimp check. I don't know. All I can do is speak for myself. And if we could work...

Heh. I have run a quick check, and turned up with one from the Tennessee delegation. Should be whip; a Freudian slip in the transcript.

But here's some intentional humor:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to federal judges. Court of Appeals: Bill Clinton nominated 51 people to the Court of Appeals. Thirty-five were confirmed. Sixteen were blocked by the Republicans by not giving hearings or not allowed out of committee. George Bush nominated 52. Thirty-five were confirmed because the Democrats threatened filibuster. They don't run the committees, so they can't block it in committee. What's the difference?

SEN. ALLEN: I think you'll find on the Circuit Court judges that President Bush has the lowest percentage of Circuit Court judges...

MR. RUSSERT: I just gave you the numbers. Clinton nominated 51; 35 were confirmed. Bush nominated 52; 35 were confirmed. Those are the numbers.

SEN. ALLEN: Well, I have different numbers than that. The reality is that some of President Clinton's nominees were blocked in committee. They did not--and a lot of them were also brought up at the very end of his term.

End of his term? That justifies it?

It was pretty comical watching Allen squirm in the face of his own hypocrisy.

Nice website: Seinfeld Scripts.

I should work in a Seinfeld reference every now and then.