What matters

The last two paragraphs in a piece on Saddam's execution from the Guardian:

The funeral came as it was reported that the US death toll in Iraq since the invasion had reached 3,000. The US military had disclosed yesterday that an American soldier had been killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Saturday, the 2,999th death since the invasion in 2003. But the website www.icasualties.org, yesterday also listed the death of Specialist Dustin Donica, 22, on December 28 as previously unreported, bringing the total to 3,000.

George Bush is expected to face renewed domestic political pressure following the latest milestone. Although the 3,000 figure is symbolically important for Americans, Iraqis suffer that rate of casualties on a monthly basis.

Uncanny

After reading this post from digby, the thought occurred to me: the most recent deaths of Republican presidents have come at politically opportune times. On the eve of a Democratic majority in Congress, we are being reminded of the "forgive-and-forget" good vibes of the mid 1970s, the need to sweep criminality under the rug and just "move on" with the important business of committing more crimes against the people of the United States and the world. How convenient for the gang in power, facing subpoenas for the first time in six years.

Now, recall that Reagan passed away in early June, 2004. At this point, John Kerry had the primaries sewn up, and in the run-up to the convention would be conducting his get-to-know-me charm offensive and high-profile VP search, all trying to generate positive media coverage. The (weeks and weeks of the) Reagan funeral effectively sucked the air out of the room during an important period of his candidacy.

Even in death, serving the interests of the GOP, eh?

My year in music, as witnessed by discs of 0s and 1s

DR wants to spread some bloggy-list goodness, and I'm happy to oblige. I'm going to expand to the definition of albums that I bought or was given by someone else (but I'll omit my shameless archiving of the local research library's music collection). As you can tell, most of acquisitions this year were dedicated to reliving the halcyon days of the, well... halcyon-fueled late 80s and early 90s:

• The Minutemen - Post-Mersh, Vol. 3
• The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
• Willie Nelson -The Red Headed Stranger
• The Ramones - Hey! Ho! Let's Go!: Anthology
• Morphine - The Best of Morphine
• Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
• Dept. of Energy - [Eponymous EP]
• Inkwell Rhythm Makers - En-Ragophonic
• G. Love & Special Sauce - G. Love & Special Sauce
• The Beatles - Love
• The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics
• Beck - The Information
• Wilco - Kicking Television
• Nirvana - Bleach
• The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
• The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off
• Wire - Pink Flag
• Silkworm - It'll Be Cool
• Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues
• The Humblebums - The New Humblebums
• Bad Brains - Banned in DC: Greatest Hits
• Fugazi - End Hits
• Thom Yorke - The Eraser
• Sonny Rollins - A Night at the Village Vanguard
• They Might Be Giants - No!
• They Might Be Giants - Here Come the ABCs
• Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow

Passing the baton on to y'all, ash, dave, and pattyjoe.

So now that you've got my attention

I'm with pattyjoe here: John Edwards is saying the things I want to hear right now, especially his emphasis on movement building (which seems to be ripped right out of the Dean playbook). To that end, his appearances over the last few months have been geared to building such a movement; he's already sewn up the loyalties of a good chunk of rump-Big Labor and has been working some churches in a manner befitting of the civil rights activists of the 60s. The recanting of his Iraq vote does count for something with me (being the forgiving sort). Also, from what I hear, he's been staffing up from the ranks of organizations that have been working to rebuild the social movements of the Left for the last decade.

I'm also intrigued by the historical lens of which digby writes, with Obama/JFK and Edwards/RFK both offering intriguing possibilities. Of course, I'm left wondering where Hillary Clinton fits into this analogy. Hubert Humphrey?

Justice denied

In my memory, never has such deserved justice been meted out in such an unjust manner and through such an unjust process.

What's in a headline?

The Horn of Africa desk in the State Department has emphatically not been coordinating its media talking points. The headlines from four English-language dailies describing the fall of Mogadishu:

• The Independent: "Ethiopian-led forces seize Mogadishu."
• NYT: "Somalia Forces Retake Capital From Islamists."
• WaPo: "Ethiopians Help Seize Somali Capital."
• The Guardian: "Return of warlords as Somali capital is captured."

Uh, whozthuwhanow?

The proverbial silver lining

In this otherwise unreadably blood-curdling example of arm-chair savagery (professed by someone who I'm sure still plays with his toy soldiers when not busy blogging in Mom's basement), I find this "little ray of light":

#6 - Guido, you took the thouht [sic] right out of my brain.

Ethiopian Pizza for everyone. Just make sure it has sausage on it!

As for the historians here, recall one name…

Haile Selassie I, The Lion of Judah.

Posted on December 27, 2006 @ 10:11 pm

Suburban rastafari wannabes take note! This bigoted, right-wing cheerleader named Mope, the Imperial Knucklehead, has invoked the name of Haile Selassie in its proper context: referring to a murderous dictator who decimated the Horn of Africa with his wars. Remember that when you feel compelled to yell his name out - over and over again - at Reggae on the River.

The return of the random playlist

It's baaa-ack!

• Frankie Says - Phish
• Think for Yourself - the Beatles
• Come as You Are - Nirvana
• Mister Would You Please Help My Pony - Ween
• Cannonball Rag - Bad Livers
• When I Fall in Love - Miles Davis
• To Ramona - Bob Dylan
• We Shall Overcome - Dorothy Cotton
• Joplin's Sensation - Mutt Carey & His New Yorkers
• Everything Happens to Me - Charlie Parker

And like the bow on a package, your bonus #11:

• I'm in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop - Brian Wilson

Tradition be damned

India is urged to confront its shame:

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh became the first leader of his country yesterday to compare the condition of low-caste Hindus with that of black South Africans under apartheid.

Mr Singh drew the parallel at a conference in New Delhi on social and caste injustices saying it was modern India's failure that millions of Dalits (meaning "oppressed") were still fighting prejudice.

Don't pull out!

via digby

Priceless (but so not work-safe!):

Just so we're all on the same page here

"Surge" = Escalation

L'il wobs is a punk rocker

I've gotta say, there's something extremely satisfying to this parent to see our two-and-a-half year old walking around singing, "Hey! Ho! Let's go!"

Papa's gotta brand new bag

R.I.P. to the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, the Godfather of Soul, Mr. Please, Please, Please himself, Mr. James Brown. May he be memorialized by a thousand booties shakin' to his funky, funky sound.

A very Punk Rock Christmas to you

Actually, I hope your holidays aren't punk rock at all. You don't need Uncle Walter choking on his own vomit after shooting up in your bathroom. Nope, I hope your holidays are filled with family and friends and smiles and a good bit of wine.
"Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" - The Ramones


And just to exorcise the Snitches of cynicism that we all harbor: "Fuck Christmas" - Fear


Peace on earth, goodwill to all, that sort of thing. I hope your holidays are full of love and good cheer.

Silly season

Follow the links, and what shall we find? End of the year funtimes!

1) Harken back to your archives.
2) Collect the first sentence you wrote every month for the whole year.
3) Entertain us.

Shall we?

I hope hope you all have a happy, blessed, and prosperous new year. I grew up in Tennessee, but left as soon as I graduated high school - a fact which has grown bittersweet over the years.

Straight from the shuffle function on WMP: Jeebus!

Sorry for the light blogging duty as of late. I've got some down-time today before I go schmooze at the Executive Council meeting (gotta pick up some business cards for future employment).

Dear god. David Horowitz and Lyndon LaRouche, are we surprised to see them drinking from the same vat of kool-aid? Am I ever going to fucking heal up?

The White House responds to charges from Bob Woodward (again, four years too late) that Bush, Rumsfeld, et al were willingly misleading the public about Iraq by, uh... quoting speeches from Bush and Rumsfeld.

Even Laura Bush can't resist kicking a person with a chronic, debilitating disease. It's nice to know that the good ole U.S. of A. is still kicking ass and taking names in some arenas of public life.

Worst. Post. Ever.

Cry me a river

Cue the world's tiniest violin, playing "My Heart Bleeds For You":

In a letter to Chileans written to be published after his death, Gen. Augusto Pinochet said he wished he hadn't had to stage the bloody 1973 coup that put him in power, and called the abuses under his long regime inevitable.

[...]

The former dictator, who died Dec. 10 of heart failure at age 91, insisted the military takeover avoided civil war and a Marxist dictatorship, and said his 1973-90 regime never had "an institutional plan" to abuse human rights.

So instead of a civil war and a Marxist dictatorship, Chileans got state terrorism and a right-wing dictatorship. I'm sure the families of the thousands your regime outright killed and the tens of thousands imprisoned, tortured, or banished are glad they dodged that particular bullet.

In the six-page text, Pinochet wrote that "I have left no room for hatred in my heart."

"My destiny is a kind of banishment and loneliness that I would have never imagined, much less wanted," he added.

Poor murderous bastard. Your punishment wasn't even a fraction of what you deserved.

Profiles in douchebaggery

I've been waiting for an opportunity to profile the douchebaggery that is the Donald, but his run-of-the-mill goings-on - and they are every bit vinegar-and-water, as the Donald v. Rosie brouhaha amply demonstrates - never seem to warrant a profile. I mean, if douchebaggery is your default status, it would take a particularly egregious instance of being a douchebag to cause us to notice, right?

At any rate, we all knew that it would be a matter of time before the Donald stepped up and delivered:

Donald Trump is suing this oceanside town for $10 million after being cited for flying an oversized American flag over his Mar-a-Lago Club.

Attorneys for the club filed a complaint Thursday, saying that flying the flag is a constitutionally protected expression of free speech _ and that the large flag is a proper match for the size of the real-estate mogul's patriotism.

"A smaller flag and pole on Mar-A-Lago's property would be lost given its massive size, look silly instead of make a statement, and most importantly would fail to appropriately express the magnitude of Donald J. Trump's and the Club's members' patriotism," the lawsuit says.

Town officials said Trump violated zoning codes when the lavish club hoisted a 15-by-25-foot flag atop an 80-foot pole on Oct. 3. The citation was for having a flagpole taller than 42 feet, for not obtaining a building permit and for not getting permission from the landmarks board.

Donald Trump is a True American Patriot™, and nothing says "Patriot" like being rich enough to extort cash from the government by self-righteously wrapping one's self in the flag.

So congratulations, Mr. Trump. You're a bigoted, spiteful man who'd gladly sell his mother for the right price; who'd rather have his ego stroked than admit that he had to answer to those who would deign to imagine they were his peers. And you're a giant, flaming asshole.

Toy soldiers

I don't like these rumblings coming from the White House:

"The president is pleased with the progress being made" in the [Iraq] strategy review, White House spokesman Blain K. Rethmeier said. Rethmeier declined to discuss details of the briefing at Camp David or which options appear to be more likely to be adopted. "The president is leaving all options on the table on the way forward. [emphasis mine]"

Oh my. When all options are on the table, George W. Bush has a horrifying tendency to choose - and stick with - the worst option of the bunch. And all indicators point to another disastrous decision.

Everyday

I'm about three months late to the party on this, but I just got turned on to this YouTube vid:

Watching this was, for me, one of those moments when I really grokked the new artistic vistas opened by emerging technologies. A truly inspired piece.

Blogger's block playlist: to the lovely #2

I still haven't resolved my issues with Wimpy's new random workings (really, it's not Wimpy, it's me). I was comfortable with the old Wimpy, and while the new Wimpy isn't bad, per se, it's different. It is more Mac-like, and while in-and-of-itself, that's not bad, I'm not really interested in having my computer to be more Mac-like. Had I wanted a Mac, I would've bought one two years ago, but I didn't. Not that there's anything wrong with Macs... I'm shutting up about this now - I have no particular allegiance to any particular OS, and if pressed, I'll just cop to being a Linux pirate.

Anyways, this non-random playlist is an homage to Track 2. Often in the shadow of the stage-setting opening track, and never, it seems, directly drawing the spotlight to itself, a well-placed Track 2 can be the difference between a good and great album:

• Dear Prudence - the Beatles
• Unconsciously Screamin' - the Flaming Lips
• Pay No Mind (Snoozer) - Beck
• Fat Mama - Herbie Hancock
• Bodies - the Sex Pistols
• Crosseyed and Painless - Talking Heads
• Walkin' (For Your Love) - Widespread Panic
• High Time - the Grateful Dead
• I'm So Bored With the U.S.A. - the Clash
• Pilgrimage - R.E.M.

And your bonus #11 #2:

• Kamera - Wilco

Got any favorite #2s?

Man-tears were shed

While I am a sucker for the sentimentality, Rocky does goes out on top. It's definitely worth the watch.

The Arabian Candidate

Get out the smelling salts! Pam's been in the liquor and has the vapors again, this time over one Barack Hussein Obama. She clucks approvingly,

The left goes ballistic when you use Obama's full name. Deceiving the American people, yet again. Debbie Schlussel nails it here

His full name--as by now you have probably heard--is Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. Hussein is a Muslim name, which comes from the name of Ali's son--Hussein Ibn Ali. And Obama is named after his late Kenyan father, the late Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., apparently a Muslim.

And while Obama may not identify as a Muslim, that's not how the Arab and Muslim Streets see it. In Arab culture and under Islamic law, if your father is a Muslim, so are you. And once a Muslim, always a Muslim. You cannot go back. In Islamic eyes, Obama is certainly a Muslim. He may think he's a Christian, but they do not.

Read it all, there's much more and read her comments section.

Then, there are the other items in his background. As best-selling author Scott Turow wrote in Salon, Obama went to a Muslim school for two years in Indonesia. His mother, Anna, married an Indonesian man (like another Muslim, as Indonesia is Muslim-dominated and has the largest population of Muslims of any nation in the world).

If I may summarize Pam's argument: due to some apparent connections with Islam, we should assume that underneath all that pious Christian talk, Obama is some sort of latent Islamonazifarian. Right now, he's hood-winking us all ("Barack Obama is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.") into putting him in the White House, whereupon some jihadist operative will ring him up in the Oval Office, ask him if he'd like to play a game of solitaire, and boom! - next thing you know, he's got four more wives, has implemented sharia law, and is building minarets around the Capitol building.

I'd find this laughable if not for the fact that I'm going to have to spend the next two years being reminded by the 30 percenters that Obama's middle name is Hussein, just like that bad guy in Iraq. And his last name rhymes with Osama.

Bring the pain

I don't think anyone who runs in our circle is surprised by this WaPo report stating that men and women experience pain differently. And while the article makes attempts to claim that biological differences between the sexes aren't the only explanation for differing perceptions of pain, the implications drawn for improving pain relief are exclusively in the domain of targeting biological and neurological processes.

I think this runs the risk of missing out on the social causes of these differing perceptions. The medical anthropology and sociology literature makes it clear that symptoms related to the same environmental stimulus or etiological agent are experienced differently across cultures. The logic of the article would seem to dictate that we look for some sort of biological differences between racial groups in order to most effectively treat these afflictions.

My inner sociologist is screaming that the differences in how people perceive pain are primarily social. We learn to experience pain in different ways, and the processes by which we deal with pain become "hard-wired" at a point early in our lives. Take this paragraph from the WaPo article:

When I get a particularly nasty headache, I race for the ibuprofen bottle and down three 200-milligram tablets (a dose long ago approved by my doctor) and get on with whatever I was doing, comforted by the knowledge that I've taken action to dull the pain and that I will feel better soon. When my husband has a headache, he delays doing anything -- including telling me, for whatever comfort that might bring -- and succumbs to the ibuprofen (taking just two tablets) only when the pain is so severe he can't do much else.

Some might say our headache techniques are a manifestation of our quirky personalities -- and there may be some truth in that.

That just screams "socialization!!!" to me. It has nothing to do with individual personalities. It has a lot to do with the fact that our culture sends out the message that girls are sensitive and frail and that boys should just suck it up (or, as Peyton Manning so eloquently puts it, "Rub some dirt on it!").

I'm all for research being done on more effective ways of relieving pain. I'm just concerned that a search for gender-specific pain relief rooted solely biology may not be as effective (and could cause some serious harm i.e. over-medication) if the social causes of differing pain perceptions aren't controlled for in the research.

What was that? Acting! Ah, brilliant!

Necessary caveat: this statement did come from an appearance on the Howard Stern show, but...

So what does it say about Martha Stewart that she was afraid Sir Anthony would eat her brains?

Martha Stewart ended her brief relationship with Sir ANTHONY HOPKINS, because she couldn't separate him from his famous character HANNIBAL LECTER.

[...]

She said, "Oh, I loved him, but he was... scary. I was going to invite him up to Maine; I have this beautiful home in Maine... but then I reconsidered because I saw that movie again.

"Do you want someone eating your brain while you are sitting in your beautiful dining room in Maine?"

Punk Rock Monday

I first saw Walt Mink open for Cracker on Election Night, 1992 (a night remarkable also for the fact that it's the only time I had a "political" drunken hook-up), and I saw them again the following summer at the Flamingo Bar & Grill in Knoxville with my high school bud Eoin, who'd come to know them while attending college in Minnesota. We joked about them being Smashing Pumpkins on prozac, but the fact of the matter is that we thought they shredded, and we had big crushes on their bass player, Candice Belanoff.

As it stands, Walt Mink is strong contender in the running for the Best Band to Almost Make It (unless you count their drummer, who left the band in the mid-90s for a full-time gig with Beck, and eventually ended up with R.E.M. as well). Indeed, most of you probably have heard of Walt Mink without even realizing it. Case in point, I seem to recall this tune being used to advertise TDK cassettes ("the tape music sticks to better") in the early 90s - "Miss Happiness":

And how Almost There do you have to be to have a video directed by Sofia Coppola and edited by Spike Jonze? "Shine":

Miss Happiness is definitely a must for any good '90s indie collection, and Bareback Ride is a great listen as well. Enjoy!

People stupider than I

Word on the street is that Jon Swift is celebrating one year in the blogosphere spreading his reasonably conservative gospel.

And his work has not gone unnoticed by those near the pinnacle of power - the good folks who run Tom "Roachman" DeLay's blog (which, oddly enough, don't seem to include the Hammer himself) have noticed as well, including him in their inaugural Carnival of Conservatives:

Welcome to the December 15, 2006 version of the Carnival of Conservatives, our first carnival here at TomDeLay.com.

If we missed you this week make sure to e-mail us and let us know so we can include you next time.

Thank all, enjoy!

[...]

The News Buckit: Intelligence on the intelligence committee?

Jon Swift: Taliban Rules

Judging Truth: Economic War- Danger Ahead

Sacred Scoop: Faux Paw Spiritual Revival

Little Green Footballs: Kos Wishes for Malkin's Death

Stop the ACLU: New Jersey Legislature Votes to Allow Civil Unions

And so I say, "Well done, Mr. Swift, and may you continue to be a beacon of light in a world of flight for reasonable conservatives, wherever they may be found!"

Merry fucking Christmas

I knew Rupert Murdoch was a cold-blooded businessman, but damn, the chill on this gambit is making me shiver:

Judith Regan, the enfant terrible of American publishing who caused outrage by touting a quasi-confessional by OJ Simpson entitled If I Did It, has been sacked by her boss, Rupert Murdoch, during his company's Christmas party.

medulla noodle turns one!

Well, we've been here for a year now. Happy Blogiversary to me, I guess. You can see how it all began here.

So, got any favorite noodle moments (other than when I made an ass of myself with jon swift)? Favorite regular features? Things you'd like to see more of? Less of? Because, believe you me, I'm willing to do just about anything for the hits, little blogwhore that I am.

Seriously, though. Thanks for reading and commenting and enjoying the silliness with me. Here's to another year of noodling!

Let the shit talking begin

So, Cecil, what will our wager be?

Baby boom

When ms. wobs was pregnant with the pre-wobs back in 2004, we noticed what we thought were a lot of pregnant women and new babies, not just in Eugene, but also during the month of September that we spent in New York. Babies and preggers everywhere. At the time, we chalked it up to an increased sensitivity to the "expectant new parent" demographic; that is, we wanted to see new parents, and to connect our crazy-ass experience with theirs and realize we were all normal.

Turns out, according to the recently released Statistical Abstract of the United States, there really was a baby boom in 2004:

More Americans were born in 2004 than in any years except 1960 and 1990.

I'm going to indulge my inner social scientist and gore myself on the Census data later, and then we can have all sorts of fun with a nerdy meta-statistics post.

The times they are a-changin'

On the heels of Pinochet, we see this buried deep in the front section of Friday's WaPo:

Cuban President Fidel Castro is very ill and close to death, Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte said yesterday.

Castro's legacy is going to be a difficult one to reckon. His five decades in power have undoubtedly produced more than its fair share of injustices. But Cuba was also spared the wholesale slaughter of the neo-colonial Central American proxy wars of the 80s.

There have been a few Pinochet-Castro comparisons floating around the 'osphere of late, many pointing out that the right-wing's barbarian produced a relatively stable "free market" Chile, while Cuba's economy languished under the left-wing barbarian. Could a socialist Cuban economy have succeeded had the United States not stubbornly clung to its open hostility and trade embargo? In the contest of long-term results, didn't the left-wing barbarian enter the contest with one arm tied behind its back? What narrative is going to dominate the billions of people in the world in the next 100 years, the one about the Latin American thug who overthrew a democratically elected regime with the help of the gringos, or the Latin American thug who overthrew a near-feudal vassal and said "Fuck you" to the United States - right on its front porch - for decades?

More importantly, as much as they have chafed under Castro, I don't know that the "freedom" of North American free trade regimes are what the Cuban people have in mind for their post-Castro society. If - and this is a hugely qualified if - Raul Castro were to allow free and fair elections upon his brother's death, and the Cuban people subsequently elected a government dedicated to Cuban socialism (sans the more repressive elements, presumably), would the United States respect that decision and still open trade relations? I honestly have no idea, and I'll gladly defer to any Latin America experts in the house. Whatever the case, I think I'd be nervous about the next few years if I were a Cuban.

Legacies

If I weren't terrified that this man who was huddled with the anointed Ivy League guardians of history was actually, you know, president of the United States, I'd find George W. Bush's obsession with his historical legacy kind of pathetic. There's something galling to me about elites who claim the role of "agent of history," that the history of the world had more to do with the self-important tantrums of rich brats than with the everyday actions of normal people in extraordinary times.

W. is more interested in composing the dipshit message he's going to write in your senior yearbook ("Hey weeble-wobble, hope that actually caring about people thing works out for you! Heh heh heh. W.") than in actually graduating.

Anti-playlist

A few events have conspired to make me temporarily eschew the random playlist feature on ye olde - or rather, ye updated - Wimpy. The good folks up in Redmond, WA felt it necessary to "improve" their Media Player this week, and the new random play feature isn't to my liking. They completely threw off the random chi, and until I grow comfortable with this strange, new randomness, I can't subject you, dear reader, to the unpredictable whims of an application I don't fully trust.

So instead, I'm going with whole albums. Because albums are where it's at. On tonight's playlist:

• This Year's Model - Elvis Costello & the Attractions
  Sometimes you just want to bop around to fun tunes. Sometimes you're in the mood for something more literate. With Elvis Costello, you can do both.
• Extra Width - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
  The Blues Explosion ranks right up there with the Stones in producing really raw, libidinal, sleazy blues-based rawk. There's a lot of throw-away filler on this album, but on tunes like "Afro" and "Soul Typecast," they nail some of the fattest nasty blues grooves around.
• Document - R.E.M.
  To be a southerner of our generation, as ash points out, is to love R.E.M. My first ever "real" concert (I don't count seeing the Monkees on their reunion tour with my mom!) was seeing R.E.M in the eighth grade at the Tennessee Theater in Knoxville, right after Document came out. To second ash again, R.E.M. actually made you feel proud to be a southerner, and Document, to me, was something of a manifesto for the "New South" (anyone remember that particular PR gambit?). It's hard to describe to people how vital the Athens-Atlanta area was during the late 80s/early 90s - especially in hindsight. Anyways, I love this album.

Consecrate the market

Second Amendment? Or Second Commandment?

The New Yorker has a nice read on the Bible publishing industry in the United States. This bit jumped out at me as indicative of the 30 percenters' mindsets:

Different kinds of packaging can always be seen by true believers as having an evangelical utility. If it helps reach people with the Word, then it’s not bad. You can consecrate the market.

I think it's safe to say that this same crowd would agree that spreading the Word through politics and public policy is the consecration of the State, or some other such nonsense. It's easy to feel good about getting rich and wielding power when it's done in the service of God. It also becomes particularly easy to portray anyone who crosses a crusading evangelical as anti-God, or worse...

What really bothers me is that "the word" being spread in some of these re-packaged devotional Bibles will be interpretive essays pushing a certain political agenda. I have no problem with the Bible itself - it doesn't surprise me that 91% of American homes have a Bible laying around somewhere, and there's something to be learned by reading it.

There's also something to be said about knowing the history of the Bible, and the politics behind translations. The cavalier target-marketing approach to biblical curatorship espoused by Southerners who think capitalism is a Divine Tool by which they'll spread the word to each and every soul (with the help of the Christian States of America (CSA) Army) does not make me trust their devotional biblical "product."

Whoops!

This just confirms what we all already knew, but damn!, is that a big state secret to let slip!:

Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was yesterday trying to fend off accusations of ineptitude and calls for his resignation after he accidentally acknowledged for the first time that Israel had nuclear weapons.

After decades in which Israel has stuck to a doctrine of nuclear ambiguity, Mr Olmert let slip during an interview in Germany that Israel did indeed have weapons of mass destruction.

He told Germany's Sat.1 channel on Monday evening: "Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly, threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel and Russia?"

They're going to have a rough time putting that particular genie back in the bottle.

Painful

This classic is fitting my subdued mood this evening. I sometimes forget how much I love Yo La Tengo, and the Painful album in particular. For me, it evokes long evenings driving through the lower South, on the way from Apalachicola to Memphis; a moody soundtrack by which to pass the drowzy hamlets, lonely truckstops, and fellow travellers on the night-time highway. At their very best (and I think this album ranks up there with their very best), Yo La Tengo's music is able to convey a sense urgency with such intimate and beautiful simplicity. Absolutely gorgeous music that is associated with some of my most cherished memories.

It's a wonder we're not more cynical

I'm ashamed to admit that I clicked on this article on the eventual disappearance of Arctic sea ice in the summer half-expecting to find some "global warming can be good!" sentiments to provide some "balance." My cynicism was not to go unrewarded:

Polar bears will struggle, these scientists said, and so will Arctic people who still go out on sea ice to hunt seals. By contrast, countries and businesses pursuing new shipping lanes, energy supplies and fishing grounds could profit.

Whole species and cultures will be threatened with extinction, but opportunities for a few fat rich fucks to get fatter and richer abound!

This would greatly ease the task of maintaining shipping lanes with icebreaking vessels, said Lawson W. Brigham, deputy director of the Arctic Research Commission, which advises the White House on Arctic matters. Mr. Brigham and other experts said the new research raised the urgency of establishing common standards for protecting the Arctic environment and patrolling shipping lanes. The commission plans to deliver letters to the Bush administration and Congress this week urging them to commit at least $1 million to start work on replacing the country’s two aging, ailing polar-class icebreakers.

Here's a nice little Catch-22 for the Bushies. What with all this calamity, displacement, and human suffering, someone - someone who is well positioned at the time - is going to get filthy rich. Being positioned apparently means having the means to maintain year-round Arctic shipping lanes. But the justification for investing in icebreakers is a phenomenon that the Bushies say isn't happening. What sort of contortions will Tony Snow have to go through to wiggle out of that one?

Probably ones that won't be half so impressive as the gyrations he'll have to perform in explaining why the Bush administration would rather profit from than prevent catastrophic global warming.

That's soy gay

h/t TBogg

Soy makes you gay. Seriously:

Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That's why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today's rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products. (Most babies are bottle-fed during some part of their infancy, and one-fourth of them are getting soy milk!) Homosexuals often argue that their homosexuality is inborn because "I can't remember a time when I wasn't homosexual." No, homosexuality is always deviant. But now many of them can truthfully say that they can't remember a time when excess estrogen wasn't influencing them.

And there you have it. Because before soy formula, there were no gay people.

Now that's sportswriting!

You won't be hearing this on ESPN:

This weekend's action in Serie A saw Roma's title chances shrinking faster than Delio Rossi's scrotum. And that, to save you the bother of checking, is pretty fast.

Cheeky Brits.

What not to do in a kayak

I'm only a class III kayaker, but even I can tell you that what follows is a textbook example of everything you're not supposed to do while kayaking, starting with, "DON'T throw your paddle away while going over a big, retentive drop:"

When Tom DeLay blogs

via dkos

In what would surely be an outlier on any statistical analysis of the length of a blog's existence relative to the response to said blog's first post, Tom DeLay had a blog!

I have created this blog in order to provide Americans with a new meeting place where such opinions and viewpoints might be better shared, discussed and debated; a place where conservative and traditionalist Americans might speak truth to power and to one another.

In all honesty, I did not fully realize the impact or potential of the blogosphere until very recently, when Red State gave me the opportunity to post some of my observations in the wake of the recent midterm elections. The response I received was overwhelming, and I would like to again thank the fine people at that site.

This experience brought me to the immediate realization that I needed to become involved in the blogosphere. TomDelay.com is the culmination of my new found understanding.

Apparently, this "new found understanding" failed to take note that just about anyone could read and comment on his blog, and that a lot of those someones have a visceral hatred of the Roachman from Sugarland:

How pathetic you are, Mr. Delay. You are a criminal, and you should be serving time in jail alomg with your buddies Abramhoff and Cunningham.

The damage you have done to this country is reprehinsible.

Do us all a favor and just disappear, you sorry excuse for a person.

December 10, 2006 | Unregistered Commenter cosmo

[...]

Didn't we already stick a fork in your ass and decide you're done?

To paraphrase you: You WERE the Federal Government...now you're a nothing.

The fact that you are trying to keep your name alive by starting a stupid blog is actually kind of pathetic and sad. Please just go away.

December 10, 2006 | Unregistered Commenter Meadows

[...]

Dear Mr. Delay,

Please ignore all untoward comments published here. We will take care of you. You have served us well and we do not forget.

After you get a little tired of this exercise in free expression please bring your family along and report to the Eunuchizing Station. You and your family will be well cared for, as long as you remember your place in the grand scheme of things.

Merry Christmas,

Your overseeers in the oilarchcy

December 10, 2006 | Unregistered Commenter ExxonMobil

Heh.

The politics of genocide

The WaPo reports today on an Iranian conference on the Holocaust, billed as "a scholarly gathering aimed at discussing the Holocaust away from Western taboos[.]"

Which is all well and good. An honest discussion about the politics of the Holocaust - without the kneejerk accusations of anti-Semitism - is both important and necessary, I think, in order to even begin to resolve the tangled issues which have roiled the Middle East. Whether the experience of the Holocaust confers upon the state of Israel a special moral status should be open to question. However, the Iranian conference reliquished any notion of credibility when it came out that

the 67 participants from 30 countries were predominantly Holocaust deniers. They included David Duke - the former Louisiana state representative and Ku Klux Klan leader - and France's Robert Faurisson and Australian Frederick Toben, who was jailed in Germany in 1999 for questioning the Holocaust.

One can question the use of the Holocaust as the moral foundation for the Israeli state without denying the enormity of the tragedy for European Jews (and Slavs and Gypsies). However, engaging the argument with the blunt instrument of Holocaust denial reduces the discussion to a highly politicized anti-Semitic caricature which only reinforces the bloody status quo of Middle Eastern geopolitics.

Government inaction

I don't know about you, but this report isn't restoring my faith in the ability of our government to find and process accurate information about the world in which we live:

When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft.

Frustrated, the State Department assigned a junior Foreign Service officer to find the names another way -- by using Google. Those with the most hits under search terms such as "Iran and nuclear," three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations.

[...]

None of the 12 Iranians that the State Department eventually singled out for potential bans on international travel and business dealings is believed by the CIA to be directly connected to Iran's most suspicious nuclear activities.

"There is nothing that proves involvement in a clandestine weapons program, and there is very little out there at all that even connects people to a clandestine weapons program," said one official familiar with the intelligence on Iran [ed: emphasis mine]. Like others interviewed for this story, the official insisted on anonymity when discussing the use of intelligence.

You mean the Iranian government isn't keeping information on their alleged secret nuclear weapons program on-line in an easy-to-search format? I'm shocked, shocked!, I tell you.

You tell me

Did they even read my blog before they e-mailed me?

Dear blog author:

We recently came across your site, medullanoodle.blogspot.com, while searching for fellow christian bloggers.

A small group of us have started a new site called Christian Bloggers. Our prayer and intent is to bring Christians closer together, and make a positive contribution to the Internet community. While many of us have different "theologies", we all share one true saviour.

Would you be interested in joining Christian Bloggers? Please take a few minutes to have a look at what we are trying to do, and if you are interested, there is a sign up page to get the ball rolling. We would greatly appreciate your support in this endeavour.

May God Bless you and your blogging efforts. We look forward to hearing from you.

Punk Rock Monday

I think I was in the eighth grade when I asked for the Butthole Surfer's Pioughed as a gift - probably for my birthday. My mother predictably balked, especially after being informed by the clerk at the regional mall-chain music store that the Butthole Surfers were typically enjoyed by people "on drugs." I don't know that Mom ever fully understood how right that clerk was.

"Suicide," "BBQ Pope," and "Wooly Bully" from 1983:


And an oddly new wave looking "Mexican Caravan" from '85:

On trains

1. I had a friend in college named Thad who was something of a model railroad enthusiast. I accompanied him on a number of occassions to purchase model railroad kits: a general store, a mining operation, etc. Thad was, however, like many of my friends in college, a little bit sick in the head, and most certainly high on teh drugs. Rather than simply assembling the kits per the included instructions, Thad felt it necessary to slightly modify each kit in order to integrate it into his grand vision of a railroad set: a model railway dedicated to how the West was really won. Mining disasters. Massacres at labor camps. Selling alcohol and guns to the natives. I'd be curious to see how this project eventually turned out.


2. L'il wobs has taken a liking to Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. After viewing a pretty fair sampling of shows, I'm counting seven or eight depictions of railroad mishaps - derailment, spilt shipments, etc. - every thirty minutes of viewing, roughly. Yet, despite the shoddy safety record and apparent lack of government regulation, the fictional parents in Thomas' world are perfectly willing to put their children on these deathtraps. I suppose it's meant to cultivate in the young mind an appreciation of the Victorian charms inherent in laissez-faire capitalism.

I won't be sending any flowers

You'll have to excuse me if I don't shed any tears over the death of Chilean dictator/mass murderer Augusto Pinochet. My only regret is that he never received the justice he had coming to him.

I'll be gleefully looking forward to the day Henry Kissinger joins Pinochet in hell.

A hero's work is never done

The Green 8 strikes a blow for personal hygiene...

Welcome to the neighborhood!

Yet another AGELista joins us in the blogosphere. Welcome to my blogroll, Mike!

Sooooooooo...

Anyone get any neat gifts from far-away friends recently?

Adieu! Adieu! To you and you and you!

TPMmuckraker bids a fond farewell to the 109th Congress:

Some three-quarters of Americans think you've done a horrible job. Some even say, with all your (admitted) boozing, (alleged) whoring and (convicted) extortion, you're the worst Congress ever. And frankly, if we didn't know you so well, we'd probably agree with them.

You did only manage to stumble in to work 218 days over the past two years.

Wow. I can honestly say, "We hardly knew you." And with a slacker schedule like that, no wonder GOoPers are getting a little snippy about actually having to work.

What Dave sez

Oh yeah.

Women and children first

That's who's getting hucked over the side as the good ship Centrism takes on water. What digby sez:

NARAL is now in the business of giving cover to Democratic Leaders who are trying to bullshit pro-choice liberals into thinking they aren't selling them out. (We saw this same ploy in Connecticut earlier this year.) Apparently, it sees itself as an inside player helping the Democrats keep from having to go out on a limb on the abortion issue. They are allowing themselves to be used as a shield against their most ardent supporters.

That is, to say the least, a very unusual strategy. They have to know they have dramatically lost credibility with those of us who consider the right to choose a fundamental matter of personal liberty. And if NARAL doesn't represent us, it represents nobody.

On a purely political level I'm sympathetic to the Democrats' desire to finesse the issue of abortion. It would be just terrific if everyone would just leave it alone so we could deal with issues that don't make people feel all icky. If the right would respect the status quo, that might even be possible. But anyone who thinks that they can quiet them with a few compromises like this hasn't been paying attention. They will not rest until they have given the fetus full citizenship, repealed Roe vs Wade and outlawed abortion. It's not like they are hiding their agenda.

This vote [link] didn't matter all that much except to the extent it showed how this is going to play out in the future. If the Democrats need to sacrifice something on the alter of "bipartisanshipandcentrism" it's looking like they are prepared to negotiate away ever more pieces of the right to choose.They have decided that being pro-choice, despite being a majority position and one based on fundamental principles, is not "mainstream." It's now a bipartisan poker chip and NARAL is apparently willing to ante up.

[...]

In the late 70's it was a matter faith among liberals that handguns would be outlawed and other guns would be strictly regulated. It was just a matter of time. Within 20 years the NRA had killed the issue. Gun control is no longer even on the menu outside the biggest cities and even then it's dicey.

The NRA said that Americans had a right to bear arms. Period. They didn't bargain or negotiate. And they were successful because when your raison d'etre is protecting a fundamental right, you have to be absolutist or you lose the moral authority of your argument.

Kiss and make up playlist

• San Francisco - Secondhand Jive
• I'm a Steady Rollin' Man - Robert Johnson
• Ash Can Blues - Cliff Carlisle
• You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - Bob Dylan
• Cinderella's Big Score [Live] - Sonic Youth
• Come Back Baby - Hot Tuna
• I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier - John Lennon
• Desolation Row - Bob Dylan
• Jacksonville Blues - Barbecue Bob
• Croton-Harmon (Local) - Walt Mink

And, singin' the metal heavy and fuckin' the U.S. Army, your bonus #11:

• Formal Introduction - fIREHOSE

Battle of the 13th Avenue Literature Peddlers

In the red corner, offering passers-by the "world's funniest joke books," assisted by his able assistants, Rubber Chicken and Rubber Cow, the current reigning street vendor, the Hippie Hawker, Frog!

And in the blue corner, direct from passing out flowers at the airport, sporting funny shaved heads and odd, mendicant clothing, the Righteous Ragamuffins for Rama, the Hare Krishnas!

Who'll win this Battle Royale pitting hand-written, photo-copied humor against rambling religious treatises? Stay tuned!

One powerful odor

Now I'm not saying my farts don't stink, but they've never caused a plane to make an emergency landing:

An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing Monday morning after a passenger lit a match to disguise the scent of flatulence, authorities said.

[...]

The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal a "body odor," Lowrance said. She had an unspecified medical condition, authorities said.

"It's humorous in a way but you feel sorry for the individual, as well," she said. "It's unusual that someone would go to those measures to cover it up."

The preferred cover-up method being, of course, scented candles.

Yeah, things are slow at the noodle when I have to stoop to fart jokes in order to provide some content.

So that explains it

h/t to jhm

In a fun tête-à-tête between David Horowitz and Michael Bérubé, we find this little nugget:

Bérubé: For this and other things, in cases where students grieve against professors for reasons that have nothing to do with politics— they have to do with sex harassment, a hostile dissertation director— there should be an ombudsperson. No question about that. My questions are two, more comments really than questions. Let me swallow my bread.
[a pause while Mr. Bérubé swallows his bread]
Student grievance is not the same thing as the firing of professors. So that analogy in the essay, I just don't buy it on its face. Some of the student grievances are justified because I've been reading the Students for Academic Freedom's Web site and some of them sound to me justified. Others are out of their birds ...

[Mr. Horowitz founded Students for Academic Freedom, a watchdog group whose Web site includes a forum encouraging college students to document when professors inject their politics into the classroom.]

Horowitz: I agree.

Bérubé: Complaining about the Iraqi flag; that's not a legitimate complaint.

[On the site, one anonymous student once complained about a professor who "talked about flags as symbols of states and argued that new Iraqi flag was not a result of a transparent and fair process. Argued as fact that new flag had similar colors to Israeli flag and that this could be problematic. Claimed as fact that other Arab societies had red, green and black in their flags. Very biased. Had no visual proof of this."]

Horowitz: If I had more money, I'd hire somebody to clean that up.

So, the reason The Professors is so riddled with errors, that his website is peppered with phantom "student indoctrination incidents," is that, despite all that Scaife-Mellon-Olin money, he can't afford to hire a fact-checker?

Barça's through

Barcelona made it through their group in the Champions League, beating Werder Bremen 2-0 this afternoon with a 10 minute onslaught in the first half, putting them on top early. Lots of creative play in the mid-field with some nice runs and crosses by Giuly on the right side before the Catalans dug in to protect their lead.

Bring on the elimination rounds.

Hello, Delhi!

Wow. Someone searched for medulla noodle by name from India. Color me the United Colors of Benneton.

A graceful departure

John Bolton left not a moment too soon:

Next year marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. As far as anniversaries go, it seems like a good one to recognize, doesn't it? It should not be a real bone of contention to say that one is against slavery; and, upon hearing of the anniversary of its abolition in one region, to acknowledge that as a good thing; to recognize the cost of the practice in the millions of lives uprooted and forced into extreme suffering; and to celebrate the efforts which ended the horrific practice.

To do so, a number of Caribbean countries got together to propose a commemorative resolution before the United Nations.

Guess who refused to sign? That's right: Ambassador John Bolton's United States.

What. A. Dick.

Brothers and sisters, near and far

As a dedicated unionist, my AFT brothers and sisters outside of the GTFF are never far from my thoughts, but they're more present today:

• My condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of AFT-Ohio President Tom Mooney. I'll remember Tom as an energetic advocate of graduate employee rights in Ohio and as a genuinely nice guy who took an interest in developing young labor leaders. Tom also gave me some new parent advice when the wee wobs was still pretty fresh out of the womb: Start taking your kid out to restaurants early, and take them hungry. If you feed them beforehand in hopes of them not freaking out because of their hunger, they won't want to eat and will in turn destroy everything within arm's reach. Turns out to be good advice 95% of the time.
• I just had a pleasant conversation with fellow organizer RH in Madison about steward structures, the kind of nuts-and-bolts conversations that I've come to enjoy over the last five years. One day, I hope all of these conversations with each other pay off and we can all build the Perfect Organization, then pass it on to uninterested hacks who will proceed to destroy all our hard work, thus ensuring our immortality as tragic figures in the mold of Sisyphus.

Unhinged

The leading lights of Soviet Blogistan wait for Pam Atlas' implosion over John Bolton's resignation as UN Ambassador (I'm sure we deserve a patented video rant on this!) [update on her Bolton implosion down yonder]

However, the evidence is pretty conclusive in saying that she's done gone and lost it:

Bush is surrounded by sharks and the new direction in foreign policy is a slippery slope to hell. Bringing in James "Fuck the Jews" Baker's brand of realpolitik will be an unmitigated disaster, empowering the barbaric Islamists.

Wow. When even James Baker looks like a Holocaust-denying, turbaned jihadist bent on wiping Israel off the map, you've slipped into a Dali-esque version of reality.

Rumsfeld memo highlights Bush isolation Financial Times

President George W. Bush’s isolation over Iraq deepened on Sunday following the publication of the leaked memo from sacked defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld calling for a “major adjustment” in Iraq policy.

John Warner, the outgoing Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee, told NBC’s Meet the Press that the president should respect the will of the people, and seek agreement with the Democrat leaders of the new Congress on a new Iraq policy.

The dhimmicrats never respected the will of the people when they elected a Republican President, House and Senate, why should they now?

I'm tempted to lecture Pam on reifying such abstractions as "the will of the people," or perhaps on the fact that Congresscritters represent their constituents, so a representative from an overwhelmingly anti-war district would be expected to oppose Bush's war. But she's not going to read it. It will suffice to note that the GOP has been in charge since 2002, both in the Executive and the Legislative branches. Congress has been nothing more than a rubber-stamp, and the Congressional minority had been utterly marginalized by design.

The GOP fucked this one up all on their own.

[updated on December 4, 2006 at 3:58 PM]: If we're happy about Bolton's resignation (and believe you me, we most certainly are), Pam's got some words for you... us...:

Anybody happy about this is an America hater. The tyranny of the minority strikes again.

The tired refrain of "America hater" doesn't really work when the so-called "tyranny of the minority" is actually the majority on issues of how batshit insane the Bush foreign policy game is.

A superhero is born

This morning, l'il wobs has decided that he is the Green 8. Plan your evil-fighting needs accordingly.

Punk Rock Monday

Perhaps no other band was more "of its time" than Reagan Youth. From their brief AMG entry:

Be forewarned: The story of this early-'80s New York punk band does not have a happy ending. Reagan Youth got their start in 1980 while founding members Dave Rubinstein -- later known as Dave Insurgent -- and Paul Bakija, aka Paul Cripple, were in high school.[...] The band released a few singles and a couple of albums during their existence, which ended appropriately enough with the exit of Ronald Reagan from the White House. By the end, the band was worn down from excessive touring and heavy drug use. Insurgent developed a serious heroin addiction, and after losing his mother in a car accident and his girlfriend to serial killer Joel Rifkin he committed suicide in 1993.

Stark.

Here's Reagan Youth captured at Tompkins Square Park in 1988, before Avenue A was a hipster nirvana of dive bars and brunch spots. "U.S.A"


"Go Nowhere"

Being from the West Coast, I'm always shocked when I see white guys with dreads and tie-dyes thrashing so hard.

Profiles in douchebaggery

I've always thought of Joe Biden (D-MBNA) as your archetypal gasbag senator, beholden to Wall Street and possessing the charisma of a carp. He is, in fact, far, far worse:

The audience: predominantly Republican [ed: not just Republican. South Carolina Republican!].

Biden humorously took note of that in his opening remarks.

“I want to thank you all for allowing me a trip here to speak to only Republicans. It’s like my hometown. I just won every district in my state except the one I live in,” he quipped.

The crowd howled.

The senator then pounced on a member’s announcement that the club would hold its annual Christmas party at the state Department of Archives and History where members could view the original copy of the state’s Articles of Secession.

Biden asked, “Where else could I go to a Rotary Club where (for a) Christmas party the highlight is looking at the Articles?”

[...]

Biden was on a roll.

Delaware, he noted, was a “slave state that fought beside the North. That’s only because we couldn’t figure out how to get to the South. There were a couple of states in the way.”

The crowd loved it.

Read the whole post over at CorrenteWire. Tell me why this man thinks he has any shot of being president. Tell me why anyone in the Democratic leadership thinks Biden should retain his committee chairmanship. Tell me why he is constantly booked on Sunday gabfests... no, never mind on that last count - he thinks he's running for president. Got it.

Stunning.

Two observations from the Holiday Market

I spent several hours this afternoon tending to ms. wobs' booth, and I made these observations:

1. Tie-dyed stretch-pants are never a good fashion idea, especially on those who could charitably be described as "pear shaped."
2. Naming your kid Irie is a stupid, stupid, stupid thing to do.

Worst. Band. Ever?

Let's count the ways:

Hinder proved that it's quite possible to sound like Aerosmith covering Nickelback, the angsty, power-balladeering, post-grunge band, while misbehaving like the loony, libidinous fruitcakes in Motley Crue.

>snip<

The concert, which ran for just over an hour, featured "Extreme Behavior" in its 10-song entirety. To flesh out the set, Hinder decided to include a cover song -- fitting, since Winkler used to perform in a cover band. But instead of dipping into the Motley Crue, Warrant or Ratt songbooks for something nice and sleazy, Hinder went with an earnest, uninspired reading of Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight."

Eddie Money fuckin' raaaawks.

Heh.

Uh, hooray?

It's nice to know that the good ole U.S. of A. is still kicking ass and taking names in some arenas of public life:

A record 7 million people -- one in every 32 U.S. adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, a Justice Department report released yesterday shows.

Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to the report.

Booyah! And can I get the obligatory shout-out to the disproportionate representation of people of color within the criminal justice system?

The study found that racial disparities among prisoners persist. In the 25-29 age group, 8.1 percent of black men -- about one in 13 -- are incarcerated, compared with 2.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.1 percent of white men. The figures are not much different among women. By the end of 2005, black women were more than twice as likely as Hispanics and more than three times as likely as white women to be in prison.

Land of the free, my ass.