The Last Ephor

HE DOES NOT EASILY EXULT, DESPAIR OR ANGER | Daily Telegraph Tim Blair Blog : "he police often question him, just because they find him interesting. His beard alone has experienced more than a lesser man’s entire body. His blood smells like cologne. In every country in the world there is a sandwich named after him. He once punched a magician; that’s right, you heard me. If he were to mail a letter without postage, it would still get there. When it is raining, it is because he is thinking about something sad. Even the things his parrot says are insightful. If there were an “interesting” gland, his would be larger than most men’s entire lower intestines. His shirts never wrinkle. He is left-handed. And right-handed. He once knew he dialed the wrong number, even though the person on the other end wouldn’t admit it. You can see his charisma from space. If a monument was built in his honor, Mt. Rushmore would close due to poor attendance. The moon is only full when it has his permissio

Hit & Run: 2008 Convention > The Shorter Barack Obama - Reason Magazine : "Government cannot solve all our problems. Just the ones involving energy, education, work, the weather, cities, the countryside, sick children, sick mothers, joblessness, hopelessness, and frightening foreigners who do not live in Iraq. Now if you'll all look under your seats, every one of you is going home with a new car!"

I just posted a snarky reaction to Barry's speech. But this one is way funnier , not to mention shorter. Read it now.

Obama's speech Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. Thanks you taxes! More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, ...because you bought more than you could afford and tuition that's beyond your reach. It wouldn't be if you'd fund students instead of schools. These challenges are not all of government's making. True. But I'll be conservative and give them credit for half. Kudos for recognizing that government does indeed have a hand in our troubles. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush. Ummm....I have to give partial credit. They did respond by bailing out the lenders which is bullshit. No tax cutting or deregulation. America, we are better than these las

Phil Hill, 81; first U.S.-born driver to win Formula One title Sad news. He was not only an amazing driver but a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. There's an old story that after a race he had words with another driver. "Sir, I don't your mother and I'm sure she's a good woman. But you sir, are and acquired son of a bitch!" Godspeed.

McCain said to choose Alaska gov as running mate. Very sharp. Very shrewd. She'll peel away disaffected Hillary voters. Gubernatorial experience and political chops in campaigning. She's an unknown which cuts both ways. Just wow.

Gallup Poll Gives Obama Convention ‘Bounce’ - America’s Election HQ : "The Gallup Daily Tracking Poll on Thursday showed the Democratic presidential nominee up 6 points over rival John McCain , 48 to 42 percent, with a 2-point margin of error. But on a conference call with reporters, Obama aides said they expect no bounce at all. “We don’t hold elections in August, we hold them in November,” said Obama adviser Anita Dunn. “So, you know, as we move forward out of this convention, we’re not expecting a bump, but we feel, frankly … that we’ve made a lot of progress this week.”" So...the "bounce" is a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8%. That's not a good sign. They shortened their expectations so that any bounce looks like more than what they expected. McCain's team (of course) went long and predicted a laughable 15 point bounce. No way, No how, Sorry Obama. Seriously, after a 3 day tongue bath from every high profile Democrat they could find and he gets a me

Declarations - WSJ.com : "Strickland said of George W. Bush that he was born on third and then stole second." Nice one. h/t: Sully

The Trick Question Quiz 80% (12 out of 15 Questions Correct) Fun quizzes , surveys & blog quizzes by

They say pictures are worth a thousand words. Herewith it one picture that will sum up Obama's upcoming speech:

TaxProf Blog: California Ballot Initiative to Impose 45% Income Tax, 55% Wealth Tax & 36%-54% Exit Tax : "Impose a one-time 55% wealth tax on assets exceeding $20 million held by a California resident or held in California by nonresident." This is class warfare. Full stop, the end. If they pass this they'll be crippling their economy. Frankly anyone who's willing to endure this lunacy deserves it. In the comments someone asks if there's a line somewhere between a tax and simple seizure. I don't know taking more than half is not even remotely fair.

How could having a good 'story' make Obama a good president? - Telegraph : "The real problem is those who were open-minded towards Mr Obama but who now fear he may not be up to it; and they are not hard to find in Denver." If they're easy to find in Denver, imagine how easy they are to find in the real world.

NationStates is a very interesting little exercise. You set up your nation and after a few questions your nation is up and running. You will get questions about how the nation is run and that determines how prosperous, free and happy your citizens are. I've signed up as "The Incorporated States of Pencader Hundred". I think it would be an interesting experiment to have as many people from the DE blogosphere sign up, create our own corner of the world and see how we fare. If you're interested, LMK in the comments

Or not " California's largest union local and a related charity have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms owned by the wife and mother-in-law of the labor organization's president, documents and interviews show." Wait, isn't it CEO's and Evil Oil Men and Chimpy Bu$hitler who are always steering money to their cronies? The Los Angeles-based union, which represents low-wage caregivers, also spent nearly $300,000 last year on a Four Seasons Resorts golf tournament, a Beverly Hills cigar club, restaurants such as Morton's steakhouse and a consulting contract with the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent shop, records show. I guess they're funneling money to those "low wage caregivers" by assuming they work at Morton's and cigar clubs. The workers, whose dues fill the local's coffers, often are described as "the poor caring for the poor." In its Labor Department filings, the local, headed by Tyrone Freeman, ha

Biden has deep ties to Rezko accomplice . Maybe Rezko is the one that introduce Biden to Obama.

Will Wilkinson / The Fly Bottle � Blog Archive � Ranting Cant : "Climate eschatology really is the ultimate in big lie crisis politics. The far-left has failed so comprehensively to make the case for its vision of society and economy that the only thing left to do is to brazenly and repeatedly assert that the world will literally collapse unless we implement this otherwise indefensible vision." h/t: Insty They are the secular answer to the fire and brimstone preacher. They are the guys with the sandwich boards that declare "REPENT! THE END IS NEAR!" They have somethings in common with those preachers: Only by ceding to their authority will we be saved. They alone know what God's/Gaia's will and how to save us. They string their followers along sometimes for year with the Sword of Damocles dangling over them. "Any minute now! God/Gaia will bring the pain! Just you watch! Seriously, like, one more year." They are typically either charlatan

I've read some some stupid shit on blogs before. Hell, I've written some stupid shit on blogs before. I'm told over and over that Legacy Media is superior because editors keep out errors and crackpots. The following post kills the latter idea so completely it should be embalmed and entombed for our progeny: If Everyone's Talking, Who Will Listen? : "It's possible that over time, an energy tax, by making some computers, Web sites, blogs and perhaps cable TV channels too costly to maintain , could reduce the supply of information. If Americans are finally giving up SUVs because of high oil prices, might we not eventually do the same with some information technologies that only seem to fragment our society, not unite it? A reduced supply of information technology might at least gradually cause us to gravitate toward community-centered media such as local newspapers instead of the hyper-individualistic outlets we have now." Emphasis mine. That's righ

FOXNews.com - Pop Tarts: Kate Hudson Sued for Fraud, Exposing Trade Secrets - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment : "Justin Timberlake Says It's 'Painful' to Hear Himself" What the hell do you think the rest of us have been saying for the last 10 years?

Biden's Bishop Will not Permit Him, Even if Elected VP, to Speak at Catholic Schools : "Biden's Bishop will not permit the Senator even if elected Vice President of the United States of America to speak at Catholic schools." Biden and Pelosi have unwisely been playing the Catholic Card in hopes of drawing more voters. The unintended consequence is that you now have Bishops publicly criticizing them for their positions. Pelosi was admonished by Archbishop Wuerl , Archbishop Chaput , UCCSB and Cardinal Egan . Rather than acknowledging her error, or at least, dissention from Catholic doctrine, she fired back intimating that the matter is somehow not settled and cited St. Augustine. That's all well and good but she misread Augustine entirely. Augustine was absolutely opposed to abortion and contraception. When the matter of days arises, he's speaking about temporal punishment for abortion. According to Exodus 21:22-23 the distinction is made between a &quo

My neighbor's dog was barking at 3:30 AM this morning. It occurred to me that he has more people hearing him than I do reading this blog. I'm at the point where I may just get up at 3:00 AM and start shouting randomly from the back porch. It will be about as effectual as this blog and I'll likely get more commenters than I do now. I started this as an outlet and lately it's been feeling like work. I moan about Democrats (and sometimes Republicans), whine about Woe Is Me tales of sleep depravation and autism and blah blah blah. What's the point? I came here looking for substantive debate and I'm not getting it. I have not found anyone who is interested in an exchange of ideas. That's not entirely true. There are some but they're largely in agreement with me which hardly makes for anything interesting. DonViti used to be interested but once he took his site down in favor of the new one that was very quickly the end of that. Now he's the re

What Biden makes up in the experience, he appears to lack in judgment. Biden's Blink on Iran : "Yet far from assuming a moderate posture, 'the elected representatives in Iran' allocated nearly 70 percent of the hard currency windfall into military and nuclear programs. The November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate affirmed the fruits of such investment when it found that Iran had pursued a nuclear weapons program until 2003. Although Biden's embrace of engagement coincided with Iran's nuclear warhead work, he acknowledged no error." And "The next month, the Senate considered a bipartisan amendment to designate the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, an important step to aid nonviolent efforts to deny it funds and financing. Biden was one of only 22 senators to vote against it. "I voted against the amendment to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization because I don't trust this administration

FEEDJIT Live: firststate.blogspot.com : "Ewing, Illinois arrived from ask.com on 'Pencader Days' by searching for my stomach hurts so badly i can not stand up straight is it an ulcer." I cannot, for the life of me, imagine how this blog shows up for a search like that.

The Democratic Ticket - washingtonpost.com : "Mr. Biden seemed to suggest that one reason so many of the District's schools fail is the city's large minority population and contrasted D.C. schools with those in Iowa. 'There's less than 1 percent of the population in Iowa that is African American,' Mr. Biden said. 'There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with.'" OK, thanks Joe. Got it. I anxiously await anyone at DL or DW to denounce that as racist. I'll not hold my breath. Not only is Good Old Joe a Democrat he's from Delaware. Their praise of the man would embarrass the North Korean press agency.

Presumably they vetted this guy. Even after doing so, they thought he as a good pick. I can't imagine that the other choices were worse: Rhetorical Question : "'Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran ,' Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face. The staffers sit in silence. Finally somebody ventures a response: 'I think they'd send it back.' Then another aide speaks up delicately: 'The thing I would worry about is that it would almost look like a publicity stunt.' Still another reminds Biden that an Iranian delegation is in Moscow that very day to discuss a $300 million arms deal with Vladimir Putin that the United States has strongly condemned. But Joe Biden is barely listening anymore. He's already moved on to something else. " This is making the rounds and rightly so. Joe is not stupid. I've heard him speak on ma

Arts, Briefly - Madonna Gets Political - Brief - NYTimes.com : "a video sequence showed flashing images of destruction followed by pictures of Hitler, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and then Senator John McCain." *Yawn* The woman won't condemn systematic rape as a cultural norm but you know, McCain is a Republican.

Japanese study says loss of fat in whales may be result of climate change | Environment | guardian.co.uk : "The team says its study offers the first evidence that global warming could be harming whales, because it restricts their food supplies. And they say the discovery could only have been made by killing the animals." I think the study is quite a bit ahead of global warming.

Very very bad. Explanation forthcoming. Bear with me on this one.

Joe Biden, Delaware Destroyer: The three best and the three worst things about Obama's VP pick Dave Weigel is a Delawarean, who knew? Even his bio omits that little nugget . He lays out the up and down sides to picking Joe. I doubt we'll see much about his support for the drug war, the surveillance stuff or the propensity towards military interventionalism.