Our legal system at work
Thomas Sowell observes the size of the problem in Risky business:

One of the signs of our times is a recent ruling by a federal judge that those who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks can sue the planes' manufacturer and the owners of the World Trade Center, among others. This extraordinary -- indeed, unique -- terrorist attack was "foreseeable," according to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in New York.

By the same reasoning, it was "foreseeable" that there would be jackasses like Judge Hellerstein on the federal bench.

Yup.

Worst of all, they have fostered a legal mindset in which virtually every tragedy is seen as the fault of the nearest source of "deep pockets."

Hmm, Bubba and Hillary are sitting on big book advances. Why not sue them too?

Kim Gandy has her knickers in a twist!
And she wrote a letter to the editors of the NY Times to complain:

To the Editor:

Re "NOW's Woman Problem" (editorial, Sept. 14):

One of the reasons women had to struggle so long to win the vote — and why we continue to fight for full equality — is the trivializing of women and our concerns.

It smacks of sexism when the endorsement of two major women's organizations is demeaned as "silly."

It smacks of utter cluelessness for "two major women's organizations" to endorse Carol Moseley Braun whose primary claim to fame is spending "quality time" with African dictators. Even the editors of the Times couldn't give that one a pass.

Blogburst alert!
(Via NZPundit) John Burns: 'There Is Corruption in Our Business' :'NY Times' Writer on the Terror of Baghdad.

From the point of view of my being in Baghdad, I had more authority than anybody else. Without contest, I was the most closely watched and unfavored of all the correspondents there because of what I wrote about terror whilst Saddam Hussein was still in power.

Terror, totalitarian states, and their ways are nothing new to me, but I felt from the start that this was in a category by itself, with the possible exception in the present world of North Korea. I felt that that was the central truth that has to be told about this place. It was also the essential truth that was untold by the vast majority of correspondents here. Why? Because they judged that the only way they could keep themselves in play here was to pretend that it was okay.

There were correspondents who thought it appropriate to seek the approbation of the people who governed their lives. This was the ministry of information, and particularly the director of the ministry. By taking him out for long candlelit dinners, plying him with sweet cakes, plying him with mobile phones at $600 each for members of his family, and giving bribes of thousands of dollars. Senior members of the information ministry took hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes from these television correspondents who then behaved as if they were in Belgium. They never mentioned the function of minders. Never mentioned terror.

In one case, a correspondent actually went to the Internet Center at the Al-Rashid Hotel and printed out copies of his and other people's stories -- mine included -- specifically in order to be able to show the difference between himself and the others. He wanted to show what a good boy he was compared to this enemy of the state. He was with a major American newspaper.

Corruption? Sounds like whoring is the best description. Hmm, that reminds me that I haven't seen "Bazookas" Lara Logan since she was putting out her high pitched whine from the Palestine Hotel in downtown Baghdad.

And the article makes you take the current line being trotted out by these paragons with a whole truck load more than a grain of salt.

And the dog ate their homework too!
Over at The Corner, Roger Clegg asks Who are you going to believe, us or our website?

NRO readers know that the Center for Equal Opportunity and American Civil Rights Institute have been contacting universities that have racially exclusive programs (internships, summer seminars, financial aid, etc.) and threatening to file complaints against them if the programs aren’t opened up to all students regardless of skin color. Most schools we’ve contacted have already agreed to change the programs—the Supreme Court’s decisions on affirmative action this summer doesn’t change the law for these programs, since they go way beyond mere “preferences”—but frequently officials will assert that the programs really weren’t racially exclusive anyway: They were just described that way on a website that needs to be updated. The latest issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education contains a letter to the editor from Shippensburg University that likewise draws a distinction between what a university policy (involving speech codes) really was and how it just happened to be described on a “Web site that had not been updated.”

Is it just me, or is this a ridiculous dodge?

It's a ridiculous dodge.

If a business has a sign posted out front that says, “Irish need not apply,” wouldn’t everyone laugh if the company said, “Oh, we really don’t have an anti-Irish policy; we just forget to take down the sign”?

Indeed.

Who's that singing Kumbaya?
From the Telegraph - Muslims boycott Archbishop's talks:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, suffered a blow yesterday when Islamic scholars boycotted top-level talks between the faiths.

The Muslim academics abruptly withdrew from a two-day meeting with Anglican delegates in New York in protest at the appointment of the worldwide Church's first actively homosexual bishop.

OK Rowan, patch this one up!

And speaking of Bubba

Democrat Presidential contenders, campaigning in Iowa yesterday, vigorously debated what title they should use to refer to former President Bill Clinton.

Dick Gephardt, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Lieberman and Carol Moseley-Braun lobbied to refer to the former president as the "Dear Leader." However, John Kerry, Howard Dean, Bob Graham and John Edwards argued that Mr. Clinton should be addressed as "Exalted Leader." The Rev. Al Sharpton stood alone in insisting on calling him "The Grand Kahuna."

It's Scrappleface.

I prefer hemorrhoid.

California Angst Alert!
From the SF Chronicle - Clinton on recall: 'Don't do this' :

Los Angeles -- Former President Bill Clinton, speaking at an African American church where Democrats have found comfort in the past, made his most forceful public indictment of the California recall Sunday, calling it a Republican power grab that goes beyond just the career of Gov. Gray Davis.
...
Later, he told reporters the campaign to oust Davis isn't a right-wing "conspiracy" but an out-in-the-open attempt to "shred the Constitution."

The forces of darkness are everywhere I guess. Pardoned any terrorists lately, Bubba?

But there were other amusements at the Bubbafest:

Later, Clinton and Davis emerged from the La Golondrina restaurant into a closed-off street full of vendors selling sombreros and trinkets, and the crowd pressed in under the intense sun. As Clinton answered questions from reporters, a Latino man yelled, "Thanks, Mr. Davis, for the driver's license!" (Davis only days ago signed a measure allowing illegal immigrants to obtain licenses.)

How satisfyingly diverse!

And the NY Post has more in Bubba Leads Gray Hooray:

But the event was not without circus-like elements.

Among the 2,000 people in the congregation was actor Robert Blake, who is awaiting trial for the murder of his wife.

Blake is free on $1.5 million bail and has been attending services at the church for about a month.

When Clinton quoted the passage from the gospel of John, "He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone," Blake's face appeared on a TV screen set up in the church.

Sheesh, it should have been Bubba's face!

Today's Hoot
Is over at Spathic:

With very little persuasion at all, I could be convinced that every single person involved with the WB's Play for a Billion gameshow deserves to be velcroed to the bottom of a city bus that's being driven through a minefield dotted with napalm pits.

And speaking of headline writers
A pal in the Old North State alerted to me the latest at The Raleigh News and Observer (The Nobs to its fans). To give you some perspective, the Nobs always has an air of NY Times wannabees trying to promulgate their stylish values to the benighted yokels of North Carolina. It reads less like a newspaper and more like a checklist of the day's leftoid talking points with a local flavor.

Anyhow, the Nobs powers-that-be apparently decided it was time for some extensive puffery about talking hair-do, Sen. John Edwards, so they kicked off an "in-depth" 4 part series on the Breck Boy. In the dead tree version they had 5"x8" photos of him on the campaign trail above the fold on the front of this and last Sunday's paper. Must have been no other news! You can get some of the flavor from their web site today and the full series is online in a special section.

As far as the articles go, here's the gist - "He's a swell man of the people." Zzzzzz. But the real question is, who's writing the headlines and subheads? A teenage girl with a crush on Johnny?

The first episode was: Easy smile hides iron will to win: First-term senator forges ahead at an unlikely pace as he sets his sights on the presidency. The pace is unlikely all right - he's battling Al Sharpton at the bottom of the rankings. And the "easy smile"? Someone tell 'em how to spell sleazy.

Later in the week, of course, Edwards withdrew from the North Carolina Senate race amidst the grumbling of the party faithful that he was going to lose that as well as his presidential bid. So after a little scrambling at the Nobs, here's the title for the final episode - Beyond senate, he races at Bush: Some call it arrogance, but his instincts tell him the time is right to push for the presidency. Sheesh, why don't they just run a closeup of his butt?

And why don't they save a whole lot of column inches and just hire Scott Ott? - Sen. Edwards Announces Retirement from Politics.

Everyone needs a hobby
It's all the same AP story, but at the Boston Globe the headline is Name-change idea for country has few backers in Georgia. Actually it's all about Butts county. Elsewhere, they were on the case and also had bumper sticker photos: Is there no end to the cracks about Butts County?; County's Name Kicks Butts; and In Butts County, y'all just back off.

"People always crack a smile in Butts County"