NotSoMuch

An Embarrassment of Riches

2005-08-04T15:37:00.000-05:00

Competing for Headline of the Day honors:

Number One (ruthlessly stolen from Ace):
Young Boys Wankdorf Erection Relief

Number Two (Well, given her sex life it was to be expected...)
Hundreds of Stillborn Babies found in Paris

And the runaway winner is (forwarded from a friend):
Hillary Clinton Presses Bush on Sex Offender Bill

Update: Headline of the Day

2005-08-02T19:19:00.000-05:00

Even better than the rather silly suggestion that Arianna has crushed Tolles by defending Karl Rove...

Four dead in cockfight grenade attack

No comment necessary.

Headline of the Day

2005-08-02T10:16:00.000-05:00

Arianna Makes Rove's Case

Oh, Arianna. You know that is going to make Mike mad. By the way, good show over the weekend by the Dodgers. Taking 1 out of 3 at home against the Cardinals is pretty good.

Super Classy

2005-07-28T19:11:00.000-05:00

Displaying the dispassionate, objective style that liberals have always sworn reporters have, Helen Thomas promises to kill herself if Dick Cheney runs for President.

Wonder if he is reconsidering...

File it under "unintended consequences"

2005-07-27T17:44:00.000-05:00

Tolles has started posting again (and chided me for not posting recently). In a recent post he (prepare to be shocked) doesn't deal with the substantive issue at hand and instead focuses on name-calling (but, see here for an example where he manages to actually discuss the issue at hand...while name calling).

The consequence of his "That Nails It" post was that I checked out National Review Online's feature "The Corner" for the first time in a while. Unsurprisingly, it turns out they are actually dealing with the known facts of the case at hand and attempting to piece together (or speculate) on the unknowns. Also, unsurprisingly, they come to a different conclusion than Tolles and the folks at The Nation (who are also piecing together and speculating).

The unintended part of the consequence is that The Corner led me to this piece in Reason Magazine. The piece discusses how a scientist was scolded at a scientific panel discussion. His crime? He pointed out that the ecological phenomenon of non-native species being introduced into an ecosystem has benefits as well as costs. Who cares? Well, Tolles does. He seems to think that scientists have no agendas (funding, political, or otherwise). Mike: how do you explain the reaction of these scientists without admitting an agenda?

If I had a nickel...

2005-07-27T13:20:00.000-05:00

Who wouldn't fall for such a clever trick?

PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian couple stole 50,000 euros from a woman in
the Sicilian city of Palermo after convincing her they were vampires who would
impregnate her with the son of the Anti-Christ if she did not pay them.

The man, a cabaret singer, and his girlfriend took the money from their victim over four years by selling her pills at 3,000 euros each that they said would abort the Anti-Christ's son.

For H-man

2005-07-20T13:44:00.000-05:00

Saw this classic at The Onion and thought of you. Keep a close eye on your better half.

http://www.theonion.com/travel/travel_europeanmen.html

Monkey Business

2005-07-15T17:46:00.000-05:00

An interesting article on teaching monkeys economics (no really).

These scientists have taught monkeys the concept of money being exchanged for goods or services. Two giggleworthy quotes:

'The capuchin has a small brain, and it's pretty much focused on food and sex,'' says Keith Chen, a Yale economist who, along with Laurie Santos, a psychologist, is exploiting these natural desires...

and

To this end, Chen has taken steps to ensure that future monkey sex at Yale
occurs as nature intended it.

Headline of the Day

2005-07-07T17:59:00.000-05:00

Jolie, Pitt Taking Home Ethiopian Orphan

My new staff member's take:

The worst part about this is that they are actually taking the Ethiopian orphan back to his original home. He is actually 17 years old now and, having moved to the States at a young age, was looking forward to pursuing a law degree in the fall on full scholarship to Harvard. Jolie and Pitt decided to make the young man, who had adopted the name Jerrold Phipps, the first person in their new charity program called, "Re-introducing Personal Heritage: Putting the 'child' back into 'Children starving in Third World Countries' to make ourselves feel better about having lots of money without having to actually do anything productive or labor-intensive." But of course you couldn't have been expected to get that from the Headline - it's between the lines.

H-man's excellent adventure

2005-07-04T18:51:00.000-05:00

H-man and his fiance are off on a whirlwind tour of the old country. Check in with them at http://matthewandellen.blogspot.com.

Hey, Arianna

2005-06-27T09:27:00.000-05:00

I hear your Dodgers were playing Los Angeles this weekend.

How'd they do?

Super sweet

2005-06-21T08:51:00.000-05:00

http://www.scrollingbuckle.com/

Maybe it's just me

2005-06-15T11:59:00.000-05:00

Been a rough month at Casa del Power, but I am ready to come back to the blog. I would like to note in passing that the average number of hits at this site was actually higher in my absense than in the last month that I actively posted. Draw your own conclusions.

Anyhoo, Tolles and I have had a couple of interesting e-mail exchanges capped off by his asking me: When are you going to post again so I can rip into something new? Fair enough. I have done some research and have posted a strong and heartfelt opinion of mine below the fold. To view it: click "read more"

Abortionist accused of eating fetuses
Found this on a link from Drudge. Tolles, I feel very, very strongly that abortionists should not eat the fetuses. Neither should they keep fetuses in styrofoam cups in their refrigerators. Maybe we'll have to agree to disagree on this one, Tolles. I'm sorry, that's just the way I feel.

I win

2005-05-19T15:33:00.000-05:00

The best post ever award. I defy someone to find a better headline than this:

Lion Mutilates 42 Midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight

Selected bits:

Spectators cheered as entire Cambodian Midget Fighting League squared off
against African Lion.

Take away point: There is a Cambodian Midget Fighting League. Seriously. We in the United States have fallen way behind in the field of midget fighting leagues. Something must be done here.

The fight was called in only 12 minutes, after which 28 fighters were declared
dead, while the other 14 suffered severe injuries including broken bones and
lost limbs, rendering them unable to fight back.

Yes, you read that correctly. 28 of them died. The other 14 were all seriously wounded. On a serious note: think of the guts it took to be the 42nd guy to charge the lion with 41 of your comrades sprawled on the ground around the lion.

Sihamoni was quoted before the fight stating that he felt since his fighters
out-numbered the lion 42 to 1, that they “… could out-wit and out-muscle [it].”

Wait for it.....

Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Spam Subject line of the day

2005-05-19T08:40:00.000-05:00

From Playboy:

Tiffany Taylor has something to show you... (nudity)

I love that "(nudity)" bit. Like you’re going to get an e-mail from Playboy with the title “Tiffany Taylor has something to show you” and think, “I wonder what it is. Is she going to help me save money on car insurance?”

Fake but Accurate, Redux

2005-05-19T08:37:00.000-05:00

Newsweek has inverted Marx’s dictum that history repeats the first time as tragedy the second time as farce. When Dan Rather unleashed the blatantly phony National Guard memoes it was pure farce all the way.

Newsweek’s entry in the “Fake, but Accurate” category was a report about American interrogators flushing the Koran down a toilet. Note: not throwing a Koran in a toilet (an allegation made by several former detainees and clung to like a liferaft by The Nation), but flushing it down the toilet.

Putting aside the fact that this story was (by Newsweek’s admission) run with one source (and one non-denial), and putting aside the fact that the one source almost immediately backtracked and claimed he couldn’t be sure he saw that in the report, we are still left with the absolute absurdity of believing that a book could be flushed down a toilet. My fancy low flow toilet has a hard enough time disposing of the water in the bowl. I think back to the wonder toilets of yesteryear and still can’t imagine that they could dispose of a book.

For the editors at Newsweek, however, this was like the Amirault case of the 1990s where charges that a couple running a day care had tied children to trees and raped them, impaled them with swords, and taken them under the house to a magic cave where children were killed. The story was on its face absurd, but that didn’t stop a jury from convicting the Amiraults. Newsweek’s story is also absurd (although more plausible accounts could possibly be true), but fell in line with the belief system of liberal editors (who at first offered a “fake but accurate” defense before retracting the story outright.)

What makes this episode tragedy rather than farce is the fact that fanatics in the middle east used the story as a justification for a killing spree that has left about 20 dead. When Dan Rather gets the boot and his program gets cancelled following his shoddy journalism, a few laughs can be had. But when dozens end up dead, no one can laugh about it.

How to win friends and influence people

2005-05-19T08:33:00.000-05:00

Concerned that Larry Summers was running away with the “most offensive statement of the year award” for his tame remarks about men and women being different, Vincente Fox upped the ante last week by suggesting that Mexican immigrants are:

doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States.

Then, on Tuesday, President Fox explained that he has been misunderstood. There was no further explanation, which is a shame because I assume what would have followed would have been something like: “I meant to demean Mexicans, not blacks. See: Mexicans are doing work EVEN WORSE than that blacks will do. How people took that as a slight against blacks is inconceivable.”

CBS to Dan Rather: It’s not you; it’s us

2005-05-19T08:32:00.000-05:00

And you know when you hear that…..it’s you.

I like the way they say it is a ratings thing, not a content thing. So… I guess ratings and content don’t have any connection.

Congress takes on the Whizzinator

2005-05-19T08:30:00.000-05:00

"How will we stop the flow?" he asks plaintively. A small cluster of spectators --
seizing on the unintended double-entendre -- giggle audibly in the back of the
room.

Brit show doesn’t suck

2005-05-19T08:28:00.000-05:00

A pretty big surprise.

On the other hand, that she and hubby are complete trash: not so big a surprise.

Another thing St. Louis can't win at

2005-05-06T09:53:00.000-05:00

Men's Health magazine has posted a list of the happiest and most depressed cities. I was surprised to see St. Louis show up high on the list of most depressed cities.

But not surprised to see that we couldn't manage to top the list. Man, we suck.

God Bless Southwest Airlines

2005-05-05T12:33:00.000-05:00

From the NYT today:

And here in Pittsburgh, a traditional hub for US Airways, that airline's $730 round-trip airfare to Philadelphia has vanished. Starting Wednesday, Southwest is offering round-trip tickets as low as $58 for flights to Philadelphia, and US Airways has already cut its fares.

Stupidest sentence of the Week

2005-05-05T11:38:00.000-05:00

It comes from one of the stupidest articles of the week: Unexpected Expense.

The gist of the article is that a gay couple is happy that they can now get health insurance benefits for domestic partners, but shocked to find out they have to pay taxes on their benefits. The offending sentence:

Employers often blame the Internal Revenue Service for the tax, but the rules were written into law by Congress.

Wow, so the IRS didn't unilaterally decide to start taxing revenue streams? Who knew?

"In Miss Who?", an outraged Bill Clinton wanted to know

2005-05-05T09:42:00.000-05:00

In Miss., Bush Touts Social Security Plan

The Laugable Holmes-Cruise Saga Continues

2005-05-05T09:24:00.000-05:00

Is Katie allergic to Cruise?

Doesn't the vice versa seem far more likely?

Out shopping in Los Angeles, Tom Cruise's 26-year-old girlfriend was sporting what appeared to be a serious case of stubble rash.

So that's what their calling a terrible case of herpes these days (seriously, look at the picture).

'If it was a stubble rash, no wonder Katie was flaunting it - not every woman can boast about kissing Tom Cruise!'

There's the understatement of the year. Not many women can boast about that.