It must be some form of discrimination
Librarians Protest New Action Figure:

A new action figure of a frumpy-looking librarian who moves her index finger to her lips with "amazing push-button shushing action!" is prompting librarians around the world to raise their voices in protest.

"The shushing thing just put me right over the edge," said Diane DuBois, library director of Caribou Public Library in Caribou, Maine. "We're so not like that anymore. It's so stereotypical I could scream."

Hmm, things seemed to have changed in libraries since I was a tyke. Including librarians that now talk like Valley Girls.

The 5-inch Librarian Action Figure, which shows a bespectacled woman in a cardigan, long plain skirt and sensible shoes, goes on sale in October for $8.95.

Why do I think they will sell one for every librarian in the country?

Today's Hoot
From St. Ann:

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recently upheld a 25-year failed experiment in race discrimination for college admissions. She breezily announced a pull-out date of 2028. Liberals admired O'Connor's Solomon-like resolution of a festering national problem and did not concern themselves with the absence of an "exit strategy."

But George Bush – with the widespread support of the American people and the U.S. Congress – acts to take out a lunatic supporting Islamic terrorism, and within six months, all the Democratic presidential candidates are clamoring for an "exit strategy." Bush should promise the Democrats that there will be peace and democracy in Iraq long before the Democrats conceive of an exit strategy to the war on poverty, the war on high rents, and the war on white kids applying to Michigan Law School.

Well, I'll be gobsmacked!
(Via Right-Thinking) If no one has ever pointed you to the Social Security Administration's online database of first names of Social Security card holders by year of birth, hop on over and check it out. I am always amazed at the trends in names. If I just look at the table below of the top 10 names for 2002 babies, I don't really find too many that would have been common among the kids I went to school with back before fire was invented. And what's with modern women's names? Hannah?

Top 10 Names for Babies Born in 2002

Rank	Male name	Female name
1	Jacob	Emily
2	Michael	Madison
3	Joshua	Hannah
4	Matthew	Emma
5	Ethan	Alexis
6	Joseph	Ashley
7	Andrew	Abigail
8	Christopher	Sarah
9	Daniel	Samantha
10	Nicholas	Olivia

The SSA web site has lots of data going back to the late 1800's and a variety of ways to search it. Dig in - it's lots of good clean fun.

One other fun seeker is Matt at The Buck Stops Here who did a little digging on the name Hillary:

According to data published by the Social Security Administration, the name Hillary is the most severely poisoned baby name in history. Hillary had been steadily climbing the baby name charts since the 1960s, when it first graced the Top 1000, becoming the 136th most common name for baby girls in 1992. But the name sharply reversed course in 1993, smashing several longstanding records for name contamination in its plunge from the Top 1000 girl names last year.

The title for the most rapid case of name contamination had been held by Ebenezer and then Adolph, names that were shunned by parents after they became associated with Dickens's miserly banker and the Nazi dictator Hitler. But while Ebenezer and Adolph each took over 30 years to fall from the Top 1000 after they were negatively associated with their prominent name sakes, Hillary dropped off the charts in just 10 years, upsetting the prior records in less than 30% of the time. Besides this achievement, Hillary also set records for largest drop in a single year (295 places in 1994), two years (420 places in 1993-1994) and ten years (>864 from 1993 to 2002). These titles taken together constitute the grand slam of name poisoning.

Follow the link for all the details, but here's the closer:

It is beyond the scope of this study to speculate as to the factors that propelled Hillary to this astonishing feat. It is hoped that sociologists will research this unprecedented case of name poisoning.

I didn't know mountain climbers were in such disrepute?

Reuters holds a roachfest
Reuters' Paris pantload, Mark John, says French suppress schadenfreude over U.S. Iraq woes:

PARIS, Sept. 5 — What is French for ''I told you so?''

With the United States swallowing its pride to seek help sorting out the postwar debacle in Iraq, France and fellow ''Old Europe'' opponents of the conflict can barely resist gloating.

''So the 'Frenchies' were cowardly, ungrateful, naive, petty and self-seeking, were they?'' asked veteran French commentator Regis Debray on Friday.

''If you like. But at least they judged it right,'' he wrote in the daily Le Figaro, catching the mood of grim satisfaction among many in a country where up to 90 percent firmly supported President Jacques Chirac's stance against the war.

For those of you of the youngish persuasion, Regis Debray's main claim to fame is that when he was leading the proletarian revolution in Colombia with Che Guevara, he got arrested and sent to prison, while beret boy got topped. When an article refers to a hemorrhoid like Debray as a "commentator," you know you're in for for a long haul with a port side list.

Chirac bet that even if the United States could win the war, it would need others to win the peace. Washington's call to the United Nations to help end the guerrilla violence plaguing Iraq suggests he was right.

This makes sense. If you're from outer space. The UN's track record of ending guerilla warfare is nonexistent.

Not one peep of schadenfreude (German for taking pleasure in people's woes) will be heard in public from Chirac's administration. It has insisted all along that it is in no one's interest for Iraq to descend into anarchy and become a base for terrorists.

Mark John enlightens the unwashed! Thanks pal and you can leck mich am Arsch.

But with memories of anti-French insults like ''cheese-eating surrender monkeys'' flying across the Atlantic a few months back, France is in no mood to send its soldiers into the fray without having a strong say in Iraq's future.

Circle the wagons, folks. The Frenchies will be here shortly to rescue us! The August heat wave must have got to Mark. But I'll pretend. What do the the cheese eating surrender monkeys want?

France has already set out its demands, calling for a fast transfer of power to a provisional Iraqi government and for security to be handed to an international U.N.-mandated force.

It will also want to ensure that any spoils from the reconstruction of the Iraqi economy and its lucrative oil sector are fairly shared out.

It's all about oil!

Someone explain to me again why Powell is screwing around with the UN? It won't be cheaper - we'll still pay for it. It won't be more effective - we're talking the UN and the Euros here. The only reason I can think of is to disarm leftoid domestic critics. As I said the other day, "Dear W, appealing to the asshats isn't a valid reason. They're going to hate you anyhow."

Maybe Federico's just an assist?
(Via The Corner) Joseph Perkins in the San Diego Union-Tribune - Far too generous on immigration:

Federico de Jesus owes Victor David Hanson an apology. De Jesus, a staffer for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, falsely accused Hanson, the distinguished author of the just-published book "Mexifornia," of racism and xenophobia at a recent Capitol Hill briefing.

During his introduction, Hanson, a scholar of ancient Rome and Greece, was aptly described as "a classicist." De Jesus somehow interpreted that to mean that the author had a white "classist" bias against immigrants.

Pelosi's aide, who somehow earned a diploma without being able to make a distinction between a classicist and a classist, got ugly with Hanson and stormed out of the briefing in protest.

His hysterics reveal what kind of not-so-beautiful minds the House's top Democrat has shaping her views on issues.

More from Jerry Kammer at Copley News Service:

Frederico de Jesus, a native of Puerto Rico who handles Hispanic press for Pelosi, apparently thought Hansen had acknowledged a "classist" bias against immigrants, according to congressional staffers and Greg Krikorian, who sponsored the briefing as director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
...
Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for Rep. Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said, "A staffer thought a racially insensitive remark was made. He objected and left the briefing." Crider said de Jesus "spoke for himself," not for Pelosi.

"It was a tirade, and it was an embarrassing show of ignorance," said Krikorian, whose center favors tighter limits on immigration.

Hansen, a Hoover Institution scholar and military historian whose conservative views about the issues underlying Sept. 11 have caught the eye of Washington officials, said the behavior of Pelosi's aide shows how difficult it is to have a dispassionate discussion about immigration.

I think these folks are being charitable. Who uses the word "classist" except the inhabitants of the fever swamps of the left? Hmmm, here's one of Federico's earlier credits:

Right after the speech, in an interview with Layla Wright, producer of Hispanic Radio Network - www.hrn.org - de Jesus said: "The importance of this struggle is that when countries united in solidarity they are defending the rights and the dignity of all nations. The best way to fight against war is to do it as Martin Luther King, Ghandi and the people of Vieques have done: with Peace!"

The march was organized by A.N.S.W.E.R., the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and other organizations.

All the usual suspects. Perkins says:

His hysterics reveal what kind of not-so-beautiful minds the House's top Democrat has shaping her views on issues.

I'd say that San Francisco Nancy got caught with her flying monkeys showing.

In the LA Times no less!
(Via FR) Roy Rivenberg presents Once again our jokes are on Cruz:

The Cruzinator is so ungrateful. Just because we aren't a rich Indian tribe lining his pockets with million-dollar checks doesn't mean we have nothing to offer.

On Wednesday, for example, we published the runner-up entries from our Cruz "Dances With Slot Machines" Bustamante Joke Contest. We had sponsored the competition because late-night comics have been mocking every gubernatorial candidate except the lieutenant governor, and we wanted to give his candidacy the legitimacy that comes with being a national punch line.

But did he thank us? Incredibly, no.

Today, we publish the contest champions. That's because we're givers. It's our nature to help.

First prize:

Memo to Cruz Bustamante: Alfred Hitchcock called. He wants his silhouette back.

More by following the link including "Wreck of the Cruz Bustamante," sung to the tune of Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." Full lyrics are here.

Today's Hoot!
Over at Give War a Chance, Emily waxes lyrical:

I beg your pardon, but if you actually need someone to WARN YOU not to STICK A FIRECRACKER IN YOUR ASS, then you are one frighteningly DANGEROUS INDIVIDUAL and frankly, it's better a better place without you in it.

And the title of the original article was "Firecracker stunt backfires on man."

I'm Chelsea, I'm here to help!
Today's Rush & Molloy gossip column in the NY Daily News amuses (unintentionally) with a tidbit on Chelsea Clinton:

Though it's said she'lll be earning a salary of $120,000, Chelsea is "going to be living in Manhattan with a good friend of hers," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters on Tuesday.

"She is starting work this week at McKinsey [& Co.], which is a consulting firm here in the city," said the senator, adding, "I don't know what consultants do. I asked her that and she goes, 'Oh, mom!'"

Can you imagine any possible question on which you would pay for Chelsea's advice?

How come no one told me it was "Inmates Running the Asylum Day"?
U.S. offers to report to U.N. on Iraq:

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday started a major diplomatic effort to internationalize peacekeeping of Iraq, circulating a resolution that would have the U.S. military reporting to the United Nations.

Since the UN couldn't organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a suitcase of hundred dollar bills, why bother?

Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle said he was "very pleased" that President Bush authorized Mr. Powell to seek the U.N. resolution during a White House meeting Tuesday.

Dear W, appealing to the asshats isn't a valid reason. They're going to hate you anyhow.

More inmate and asylum news
Jerry Kilgore is the Virginia Attorney General and Lawsuit bucks Kilgore opinion:

Attorneys representing immigrants will file a lawsuit today against a number of public colleges and universities in Virginia, challenging state Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore's opinion that schools should deny admission to those who are here illegally.

Ah, this is promising! Sued for denying state college admission to illegal aliens.

The attorneys, one of whom is with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), argued in court documents that denying admission to students who are not U.S. citizens is unconstitutional.

Dang, I must have been snoozing in class the day they covered the part of the Constitution that provided US taxpayer subsidized college educations to everyone in the world.

"Illegal or undocumented aliens should not be enrolled in Virginia public institutions of higher education," Mr. Kilgore, a Republican, wrote in the Sept. 5 memo, which was distributed to the presidents and chancellors of Virginia's 37 state colleges and universities.

The memo also stated that illegal immigrants, if admitted despite his position, should be denied in-state tuition benefits since they are not legal Virginia residents.
...
Mr. Kilgore's memo further stated that public employees who become aware of illegal immigrants on college campuses should notify the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service, as well Mr. Kilgore's office.

And exactly what is the problem with that? The plantiffs' legal eagle responds:

" 'Undocumented' connotes a number of things," said Ms. Tallman in a telephone interview from her office in Atlanta. "This opinion is actually preventing a wide range of otherwise qualified students from attending schools. If you are not a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident, that appears to be the line where many [schools] are making the cut-off."

Sounds like the right line to me, Ms. T. All that's left is illegal aliens.

But here's Ms. T's legal hook:

"The authority of Congress to regulate immigration may preclude [Mr. Kilgore] and state educators from reporting undocumented students, as well as denying them admission to their schools," Ms. Tallman wrote. "The power to regulate immigration is a power that is exclusively held by the federal government."

And a swell job it's doing too. But how does that preclude states from declining to subsidize illegal aliens? As for dropping a dime on the illegals, I would have thought that was their duty. Speaking of which, why isn't Ms. T guilty of aiding and abetting criminals, or better yet, a criminal conspiracy?