Finding the wizard

Jamieon Foser from Media Matters writes an Open Letter to the "Gang of 500".
Here's the shorter version:

Scarecrow: . . . some people without brains do an awful lot of talking... don't they?
Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

Science marches on

Blogs here and here and here are linking to this:

New Element on Periodic Table
A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the densest element yet known to science. The new element has been named "Bushcronium."
Bushcronium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 311. These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.
The symbol for Bushcronium is "W". Bushcronium's mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly interact with various elements in the atmosphere and become assistant deputy neutrons in a Bushcronium molecule, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Bushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass".
When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an element that radiates orders of magnitude more energy, albeit as incoherent noise, since it has 1/2 as many peons but twice as many morons.

Stupid driving

Why would parents drive like this?:

. . . the car was trying to pass three other vehicles in a no-passing zone outside Henryville, Que., when it struck an oncoming vehicle.

Result: children orphaned.
There are times -- more often than I am aware of, probably -- when I drive poorly. But driving stupidly is another issue. Its the opposite of defensive driving; its offensive driving.
The worst offensive driving we ever saw was one summer day between Banff and Lake Louise - single lane, lots of curves, lots of RVs, lots of trucks -- and crazy people constantly pulling out to pass four, five, six vehicles at a stretch, relying on someone else to pull over and let them back into line or else for the oncoming traffic to hit the shoulder.
UPDATE: Commenter SouthernQuebec notes that police are now saying it was the other driver who was driving stupidly and caused the accident, not these parents. A tragedy either way, of course, but at least these poor people were not endangering their own children.

This is priceless

If you don't get MSNBC or watch Olbermann, enjoy!

Of course Dick Cheney doesn't support torture

...yeah, sure.

The October Surprise - Michael J. Fox

So who is the disgusting one -- Michael J. Fox, shaking and weaving as he pleads for America to support the research that may save his life? Or Rush Limbaugh, shaking and weaving as he mocks Fox's condition?
Republicans can whine all they want about how mean and tricky Michael J. Fox is, but Americans won't buy it.
Americans love underdogs. And they hate bullies.
This has great potential, I think, to turn into Schiavo Part Deux for the Republicans.
And it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.
Remember how the Republicans all rushed back to Washington to generate some good publicity for themselves by "saving" Terri Schiavo from her husband and the legal system -- only to find that they came across as craven opportunists pandering to religious extremists.
So CBS news anchor Katie Couric decided she would try to help out her friend Rush today by trying to do a "hard hitting" Press the Meat-style interview with Michael J. Fox -- and she came across as a cold-hearted bitch pandering to religious extremists.
Digby is really pissed off at the smear attempts. He gives us the story that America will support:

The guy is so clearly trying to do something good here. It just kills me that these heartless bastards are attacking him and saying that it's tasteless or manipulative for him to be an activist for a disease that's killing him.
Actors are vain people. It cannot be easy for him to expose himself in public knowing that when the public sees him in this condition they are uncomfortable and pitying. He is rich enough to live out his days in in comfortable privacy, getting the best of care and giving money for the cause. But he's put together a very serious and productive foundation that has funded 70 million dollars in Parkinson's research and he works constantly on the issue.. . . Stem cell research has the support of the vast majority of this country of all political persuasions but it's being held hostage by the same minority group of religious extremists who staged that sideshow over Terry Schiavo. There you had a woman with no brain and no hope who the extremists were willing to go to the ends of the earth to "save." Here we have a 45 year old man who is fully funtional intellectually but whose body is beginning to fail him because of a terrible disease and they are rudely dismissing him as a fake and saying that his life is no more important than a smear in a petrie dish.

Fox was authoritative, passionate, articulate and sensible. I hope he does lots and lots of interviews over the whole next week -- reminding voters every day who vetoed stem cell research and why, and how the Congress can pass a veto-proof bill if enough Democrats are elected.
So thanks to Rush Limbaugh's ugly smear attempt, Michael Fox's one little ad in one race will haunt the Republicans just like Terri Shiavo did.
Go, Michael, go!

Deja vu all over again

So the federal and provincial governments are meeting in Mashteuiatsh, Quebec to discuss Aboriginal socio-economic issues.

Federal Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice listed four themes that should be discussed: education and housing problems, territorial claims, employment and economic development, and aboriginal self-government.

Gee, sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it? I can't quite put my finger on it, but wasn't there some agreement made about about a year ago, sort of along the same lines?
Of course, that one wasn't really any good at all because it didn't solve every single problem in one fell swoop. THIS time, it's going to be different. THIS time, all our problems will be solved and . . .

Heckofajob, Bushie

George Bush has achieved what everyone once took to be impossible -- he has made the Syrian dictatorship look better than democracy:

Advocates of democracy are equated now with supporters of America, even 'traitors,' . . . "Now, talking about democracy and freedom has become very difficult and sensitive. The people are not believing these thoughts anymore. When the U.S. came to Iraq, it came in the name of democracy and freedom. But all we see are bodies, bodies, bodies." . . . "The Americans came to Iraq to make it an example to the other countries to ask for change. But what happened was the opposite. Now everyone is saying we do not want to be like Iraq."

Well, at least the Iraq war has accomplished SOMETHING.

Great line of the day

Nova Scotia journalist Ralph Surette, writing about the Harper government's refusal to support a ban on bottom-trawling fishing:

. . . There's something increasingly rodent-like about this government. It comes out in the darkness to gnaw at healthy tissue — adult literacy, the EnerGuide program, the Community Access Program, and much else that it has insidiously cut — then scurries out of sight when faced with the light of day. Having decided to stick it out in Afghanistan amid much bravado, it cuts and runs on everything else — environmental policy, the AIDS conference no-show, and now this.

Emphasis mine.

Well, it was new to me

So we're wandering around all the child-of-the-60s, touchy-feely, head-type stores in Boulder and I see a new phrase that I had never seen before:

I see the Fuck-up Fairy has visited us again.

Gales of laughter - I thought it was hysterical.
So now I'm home and I google the phrase and turns out everyone else has known it for years.
Oh, well. It's still funny.

Hi, everybody

Boulder is a beautiful city, but Blogger appears to be still sort of messed up, so this won't be a very long post -- just wanted to report in. New posts as soon as I can get them up.

Rocky Mountain High

We're off to Boulder tomorrow for a conference -- I've never been to Colorado before so I'm really looking forward to it.

"When the Man comes around"

Alison at Creekside first posted this video, Enter at Your Own Risk, and she is now asking other bloggers to post it too.

Great line of the day

Swopa at Needlenose writes about the likelihood that the US will "solve" Iraq by promoting a "Saddam Lite" coup:

. . . staging a coup in Iraq would be like trying to steal a car that's already been stripped for parts and is sitting on wooden blocks . . . just because it doesn't make a lick of sense doesn't mean the Bushites won't give it a try.

Results

My favorite line from Ghostbusters is this one:

"Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've worked in the private sector. They expect results!"

Which brings us to Rick Salutin's column this week, about expecting results:

I wish leaders such as Stephen Harper, George Bush and Tony Blair, who often say they “accept responsibility,” would get clear on what they are responsible for. They are responsible for the results of their actions, not whatever good intentions they have when they embark . . . This is not a point in abstract theory. The situation in Iraq is far worse now than it was before the invasion . . . That is what Tony Blair and George Bush are responsible for.
It seems to me this kind of sage awareness underlies the scepticism that many Canadians feel about our Afghan mission. They are worried about the results, not the motives. So when Lewis MacKenzie wrote in The Globe and Mail this week that the polls should ask, “Do you support letting the Taliban return to power” and “Do you support beheading teachers,” he misses the point. People are not questioning goals; they are evaluating the chances of getting there. . . . it looks too much like Iraq.

Emphasis mine.
And I want to add this observation: when Canadian politicians and military and the Queen's Own 101st Fighting Keyboarders (Canadian branch) undertake to trivialize and ridicule legimate war concerns and questions -- the "cut and run" fingerpointing terminology is one example, as is the "Do you support beheading teachers?" type of question (to which I would be sore tempted to reply, why of course!, but I digress) -- the more suspicious we will be that somebody doth protest too much, that someone is trying to pull a fast one, to sell us a bill of goods. And maybe then we would start to wonder if the Afghanistan mission is failing but that Canada's leaders are trying to pretend results don't matter as long as our hearts are true.