More nominations for the "Full of more crap than a Christmas goose" contest
I missed Supeme Court Justice Ruthie Ginsburg's remarks to the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, a new organization of "progressive" lawyers. Ruthie apparently jumped at the chance to illuminate her activist judicial attitude for her fellow radical tinkerers:

The Supreme Court is looking beyond America's borders for guidance in handling cases on issues like the death penalty and gay rights, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Saturday.
...
"Our island or lone ranger mentality is beginning to change," Ginsburg said during a speech to the American Constitution Society, a liberal lawyers group holding its first convention.

(Some asshat) Justices "are becoming more open to comparative and international law perspectives," said Ginsburg, who has supported a more global view of judicial decision making.

Ginsburg cited an international treaty in her vote in June to uphold the use of race in college admissions.

I wonder if she also led 'em in chorus of Kumbaya? I've noted this perversion previously, but it's always nice to hear it from the horse's er, mouth.

However, Ruthie's got some tough competition from Her Heinous:

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton inadvertently insulted hundreds of thousands of people who have purchased her memoirs during an appearance on the "Tonight Show" last night, telling host Jay Leno that many of her fans had never bought a book before purchasing her tome.

"It's terrific," she said, describing the crowds that have flocked to her book signings. "They tell me it's the first book they have ever bought. It's wonderful."

Pure bull, but what a fantasy! Some possibilities are positively enticing.

• Maybe they thought they were buying decorative doorstops and ended up in the wrong store
• Maybe they thought her book was a religious icon and would keep away AIDS (or at least herpes)
• Maybe they wanted to scare birds away from the garden and noticed her scary mug on the cover
• Maybe they're really, really stupid and planned to look at the pictures?
• Maybe they're really, really twisted and planned to do weird things with household objects and small furry animals while looking at the cover?
• Maybe they planned to sell them on eBay?

So how does the "smartest woman in America" explain this phenom?

An incredulous Leno erupted in laughter. "They're an adult and this is their first book? Doesn't this say something about our educational system?"

"Well, it might say something about their income," Clinton countered.

Puhleeze!

Letters - we send letters!
Holly Ramer at the AP reports that the Kool Aid drinkers are keeping busy in Howard Dean's campaign to send out personalized letters from fans:

CONCORD, N.H. -- Personalized letters from fans of Howard Dean's presidential bid will be filling the mailboxes of New Hampshire voters next month.

The Democrat has asked supporters around the country to write to 40,000 New Hampshire residents urging them to consider the former Vermont governor and his candidacy.
...
On Aug. 6, supporters will put pen to paper at 340 sessions organized through Meetup.com, which connects people with shared interests. The campaign collected names and addresses from voter registration records, then contacted voters to winnow the list to those who haven't committed to a candidate, Clark said.
...
Dean's "New Hampshire Neighbors" effort is similar to the "Adopt-an-Iowan" program he launched last month.
...
"I think in this day and age, everyone appreciates receiving a handwritten letter from someone who genuinely cares about a candidate they're supporting," she said.

But it turns out that some of those who "genuinely care" about Howie aren't so favorable as a Letter to the Editor of the Daily Iowan (terrible free registration system) reveals:

The true face of Howard Dean

I would like the people of Iowa to see the true face of Howard Dean before his campaign workers put so much lipstick on the pig that he becomes unrecognizable.

The people of Iowa should know that, thanks to Dean and his cronies in the Vermont Legislature, family farms in Vermont are going out of business at a rate never before seen in the state's history. Property taxes have risen to a point where people are being taxed out of their homes and off their land, and working people cannot afford even the most basic of services.

Dean has used our tax dollars to fund a rail service that has no passengers, a bike path that is so over budget it cannot be completed, and an educational system that consistently produces high-school graduates who cannot make change for a dollar nor find the United States on a map of the world if it were the only country outlined in red.

Dean does not belong in any public office, much less the office of president. He doesn't support the active defense of this country, he believes in taxing those who do real work to support those who don't, and he will do or say anything to get elected. I hope that he never gets the chance to do for America what he's done for Vermont.

Albert Reil
Morrisville, Vt., resident

Uh Oh! Looks like someone beat Howie's spinners to the punch.

I see that IQ's didn't increase while I was away
Zsa Zsa will declare her candidacy for California governor today. And there are more to come apparently. Stand by for extreme hilarity.

Meanwhile in Arlington, VA the County Board voted to build a $110,000 pavilion (with $30,000 per year staffing and additional police patrols) where illegal immigrants can hang out waiting for jobs. The residents of the local community where they used to hang out (and I do mean "hang out") are mostly relieved,

Residents of Nauck, an historically African-American community, have clashed frequently with the day laborers, who are largely Hispanic. Nauck residents have complained about trespassing, public urination and acts of petty crime, which they pinned on the day laborers.

Alfred Taylor, president of the Nauck Civic Association, said his group was giving “limited, conditional support” to the new location. But he criticized county staff for failing to involve the community in the selection process, and criticized board members for funding a site for immigrants, many of them illegal, while proposals for improvements to the Nauck community languish.

but the local "public" broadcasting weenies are all upset:

If the decision to move the facility south of Four Mile Run Drive pleased the residents of Nauck, it positively infuriated officials of WETA, the public broadcasting giant that operates out of several buildings in Shirlington.

WETA chief executive officer Sharon Percy Rockefeller attended Tuesday night’s board meeting, and was deeply critical of the final decision.

“It would absolutely complicate our lives,” said Rockefeller, who noted that the new facility is to be located adjacent to WETA’s broadcast center.

Rockefeller predicted that a “pretty hostile environment” would quickly develop between her employees, who now walk between the various facilities, and the day laborers. “I don’t want the incidents to happen,” she said.

Rockefeller also complained that the location of a day-laborer camp would complicate security around the studios of the “NewsHour,” public broadcasting’s signature daily news program. High-profile guests begin arriving at the studios shortly after noon each day, Rockefeller said, and would likely be met by the day laborers who did not find work that day.

Republican-leaning activist Robert Molleur, who attended the public hearing, had little sympathy for Rockefeller’s woes.

“She’s part of the liberal establishment that created the mess, now she wants to protect elite liberals from it,” Molleur said. “Liberal hipocrisy at its best.”

C'mon Sharon, put your party duds on and welcome the new neighbors!

But a question occurs - why not just call the INS and ask 'em to pick up the illegals? Hmmm, never mind.

A few more notches for the Ecoweenies
John Berlau reports in Insight magazine that the Columbia and Challenger space shuttle disasters are both directly attributable to the substitution of unsuitable materials based on typical Ecoweenie whining.

But many experts looking at the tragedy that killed seven astronauts say there is a deeper cause. They say that the metaphorical smoking gun should be painted green.

Because of demands that the agency help to front for environmentalism, and under pressure from the Clinton-Gore administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) led by Carol Browner, NASA had stopped using Freon, a fluorocarbon that greens claim damages the ozone layer, in its thermal-insulating foam. NASA found in 1997 after the first launch with the politically correct substitute that the Freon-free foam had destroyed nearly 11 times as many of the shuttle's ceramic tiles as had the foam containing Freon. The politicized foam was less sticky and more brittle under extreme temperatures. But apparently little or nothing was done to resist the environmentalist politicians.
...
The sad thing, critics say, is that NASA and policymakers seemed to have learned very little from the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986, where the switch to another eco-friendly material - due to another hyped scare having become politically correct - also played a large role in the tragedy. "The bottom line is that in both of these cases NASA made or was forced to make design changes based on claims that are not scientifically established," Hacker observes.

Meanwhile over at the Guardian, they've discovered the Weather Gods are angry at the USA. Their screed is fetchingly titled The climate must change: And reform must start with America.

Maybe the gods would be placated if we threw a few Ecoweenies in a volcano? It's certainly more pleasing than dead astronauts.

Back from the hinterlands
"When the van is full, it's time to head home." At least Mrs. Philosopher didn't spot a U-Haul dealer before we were well on the way back to the barn. Now I'll have to wait a month before she fully removes the selection of prime junque which she acquired on our jaunt. Next year she's threatening a a visit to the Route 127 yard sale. My observation is that unless she learns to drive a 18 wheeler, she won't last more than a mile or two.

As for politics, we didn't go looking for it and mostly it didn't find us. I would have to say that small town America loves the troops based on the copious displays of flags and yellow ribbons at homes, businesses, and schools. (Apparently the NEA hadn't gotten to the latter.) However, standing in line at an old mining town's Volunteer Fire Department sale of fresh cooked bleenies, the locals were grousing about the useless mayor, the incompetent police department, and President Bush wasting money on rebuilding Iraq and fooling around in Liberia. Mrs. Philosopher innocently inquired whether that meant they were Hillary fans and the howls of distaste for "that crook" amazed us. When asked who they did like, the Volunteer Fire Department seemed to be about it. That's the kind of folks I like - grumpy.

Blogging will recommence shortly at a suitably mellow pace.

Gone fishing
Mrs. Philosopher insists that we venture forth in our SUV to heed the call of the open road. Since we will be traversing some of those congested blue states, I wish I was driving one of these instead. I guess I'll just have to rely on my sunny disposition. Back in August.

No thanks!
In India, Cow dung to the rescue for lightning-struck kids:

ANGARA: The students of Hesalagarha Rajkiya Vidyalaya, a government-run school located in Angara block of Jharkhand's Ranchi district, are yet to get over the bolt from the blue that rocked this school on Friday afternoon.

More than 399 students were in the school when lightning struck. ``Afterwards I found 15 students lying unconscious inside the hall. I didn't know what to do. I ran out of school and informed the people,'' recalled Principal Sadarnath Mahato.

Though the police station and the primary health centre is located less than four km from this school, it took an hour-and-half for doctors to arrive. By the time doctors led by Devendra Kumar reached, villagers had already provided them "first-aid". "We took these boys out and covered their bodies with cow dung," said Ashok Bhokta, a resident.

There's a lot more in the article on the state of medical care in India including this gem:

"Government doctors don't care, they treat you like dirt and prescribe 10 medicines for a simple fever. After we learnt they got a cut on each medicine they prescribed, we stopped going to the government hospital."

The dirt part reminds me of this diatribe on the vaunted Canadian socialized medicine system:

Health care in Ontario is free, but so is eating lunch from a trashcan. So last week I flew to Baltimore to see an eye specialist. I did this to avoid a two-month wait in Toronto, the indignity of being treated like a head of cattle at Toronto Western, and health-care workers that are Canada's best answer to an authoritarian regime.

My U.S. medical bill was $1,000 U.S., a price I'm happy to pay just to avoid being sworn at by Toronto nurses.

Whether the care I received in the United States was medically better, I cannot judge. But I did buy something you can't buy here: Civility.

Such a deal!

Tin foil beanie alert!
(Via Right Wing News) Tom Delay, in noting the the decrepitude of the Democrat contenders, has this gem:

"Dennis Kucinich, a long-time member of Congress, now calls for legislation -- I love this -- to ban 'mind control' weapons in outer space," DeLay said. "It makes you wonder if at their next presidential debate, the Democrats are all going to show up wearing aluminum foil helmets to protect their brain waves from the mother ship."

A lot more goodness at RWN, as usual.

He's having a hoedown!
Fidel had a big celebration in Cuba yesterday. Good to see that the usual suspects turned up to don the supplied fancy dress outfits. But someone should tell Elian that smoking is bad for his health.

As for the Old Rogue, he took the opportunity to whine about the EU ganging up with the United States on the singing socialist toilers of the balmy isle. It would certainly be too bad if Fidel gets to die in bed.

Bummer!
Pakistan Bans Latest Issue of Newsweek:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan has banned the latest issue of Newsweek's international edition, saying an article on new interpretations of the Quran offends Islam.

The information minister said Thursday that customs authorities have been ordered to seize copies of the edition.

"The article is insulting to the Quran," the minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, told The Associated Press. He said officials fear the article could incite violence in a nation wracked by feuding between militant members of the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam.

"The decision was taken to prevent religious violence and control law and order situation."

So what offended the perpetually offended this time?

Ahmed said it was headlined: "Challenging the Quran."

An article with that title on Newsweek's Web site deals with a new interpretation of Islam's holy book by a German scholar of Semitic languages, who uses the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg.

He argues that the language of the Quran has been misinterpreted and that in verses detailing the rewards of heaven the text's original word, meaning "white raisins," was mistaken for the word "houris," or dark-eyed virgins, the article says. He also questions Islamic rulings that women cover themselves and says the Quran was originally a Christian document, the article says.

Well, getting a box of raisins instead of the camels, er, virgins certainly puts a damper on the martyr business. Dig right in, wingnuts!




UPDATE: The Newsweek article (hey guys, your site sux) elaborates:

In a note of encouragement to his fellow hijackers, September 11 ringleader Muhammad Atta cheered their impending “marriage in Paradise” to the 72 wide-eyed virgins the Qur’an promises to the departed faithful. Palestinian newspapers have been known to describe the death of a suicide bomber as a “wedding to the black-eyed in eternal Paradise.” But if a German expert on Middle Eastern languages is correct, these hopes of sexual reward in the afterlife are based on a terrible misunderstanding.

ARGUING THAT TODAY’S version of the Qur’an has been mistranscribed from the original text, scholar Christoph Luxenberg says that what are described as “houris” with “swelling breasts” refer to nothing more than “white raisins” and “juicy fruits.”

Juicy fruits sums it up nicely.