Helen Thomas is an embarrassment to her field

But you knew that already.

Overreaction is one way to put it, I guess

US complains of Sudan's 'overreaction' in teddy bear case

I'd go more along the lines of old-fashioned 'insanity', myself:

Teacher hidden as Sudan mob urges death

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so terrifying:

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and swords and beating drums, burned pictures of a British teacher Friday and demanded her execution for insulting Islam by letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad.

WHOA

Man Takes Hostages in Clinton Office:

A man who appears to have a bomb strapped to himself takes two hostages at the campaign office of Sen. Hillary Clinton in Rochester, N.H., according to authorities. The Democratic presidential candidate is not in the building.

Not so random thought

I don't mind there being a Spanish option when I call places like the DMV or the Passport Agency, but I don't like the "press one to continue in English" option. English should be the default, the one where you don't have to press anything at all.

Conversation of the Day

"I have never loved a woman so much except for my mother"- Dorian Davis on meeting Ann Coulter.

"Can I blog that?"- Me

"I'm not sure grandma would appreciate it"- Dorian

Friday silly

Dawn Summers posted a video of me playing a heads-up poker match against Superfischel last November. I want it noted for the record that I've lost something like 20 pounds since then. And also that I made a awesome fold and a great call and poker is so mean. She also recently took what would have been a really cool photo of me at the poker table in Atlantic City, sitting on a bunch of chips, listening to my ipod in one ear and twirling the chips. Of course, she cut off half my face and mostly got the shot of the guy sitting next to me but no one ever said Dawn knows how to frame a picture.

Perhaps this belongs on the poker blog

A new magazine called "Russia!" (hat-tip to "J") rates the best and worst Russian accents in Hollywood. They write: "Unlike the Muslim, Jewish and other communities, the Russians have been historically docile about being portrayed as drunk, murderous plotters. But that's not the offensive part. The offensive part is being portrayed as a drunk, murderous plotter with a Czech name and a Transylvanian accent."

Viggo Mortenson won for best accent in Eastern Promises (the movie was so-so but he really did a phenomenal job, particularly with the Russian dialect): "This year, we're proud to acknowledge Mr. Mortensen, whose star turn in Eastern Promises is amazingly sensitive, multifaceted, and above all authentic. His character even speaks a specific old-school thief slang, and switches to Ukrainian when comforting a Ukrainian woman."

John Malkovich has the second worst accent (Nicole Kidman "wins" the worst for some movie I never saw) for his terrible accent in "Rounders":

Teddy KGB, a tracksuited card shark tormenting Matt Damon (playing his trademark male ingenue with one extra-special talent) in this underground-poker potboiler, is a patently ridiculous concoction. First of all, there’s the matter of that painful handle. “Teddy” – what’s his real name, Fedya? And what kind of Russian gangster would be called “KGB” by his peers? Not buyin’ it. Still, when Malkovich opens his mouth, his usual louche villainy works so well with his Russian accent that you believe in this preposterous character immediately, as if he was your own evil uncle. The magic ebbs somewhat when Malkovich says a couple of words in actual Russian – his pronunciation, surprisingly, falters.

On a sidenote: I want the Russophobe mug.

Gone negative, back later

The Rudy jab got cut out of the Fred Thompson mini-ad shown at the YouTube debate yesterday. Rudy looked practically insulted that Fred only went after Mitt and Huck. Here's the whole thing:

Worth every penny

Or, not:

Scotland has replaced its airport signs proclaiming the country to be "the best small country in the world" with a new slogan: "Welcome to Scotland."

The new slogan, which was revealed Tuesday after six months of development and $250,000 spent on the project, is also printed on the posters in Gaelic as "Failte gu Alba," The Times of London reported Wednesday.

Maybe it's because baby really has come far...

...but I find these sexist ads, from a new book about sexist ads, pretty funny:

Hat-tip Jamie.

YouTube Debate

I'm half-watching while hanging out with one Dawn Summers.

So, Ron Paul just confirmed he does indeed believe there is a North American Union?

Mike Huckabee was talking to Mitt Romney and started saying "with all due respect..." and Dawn concluded with "I don't know what we were talking about, I got lost in your eyes." It's the first time she's seen Mitt live and she is in love.

UPDATE: Mitt Romney is rocking. I love his answer to Fred Thompson's mini-ad. He won't apologize for becoming pro-life and he was wrong in his prevous abortion stance! That's good stuff. I'll say it here and now, I can be ok with a Romney candidacy.

"We'll see"

I have several friends, Tom Elliott, Philip Klein and particularly Charlie Prince spring to mind, who are huge Giuliani fans and have been for some time.

I am too, I've detailed it before, but I have struggled to find a different candidate to support for the presidency for all the reasons I've outlined on this site previously (starting with my feeling that we'll end up with McCain if Giuliani seems like he'll win the nomination).

I settled on Fred Thompson because he fit in so many ways. A true conservative, well-spoken, and a man with presence, ideas and enthusiasm. Except it turned out that the last one, well, not so much.

I'm still hoping Fred can turn things around but it's not looking too good and I admit that. That doesn't seem to be enough for Charlie, who sent me an extensively researched email which shows that Fred's numbers are too low to turn around in time and that I should give up hope. Here's the money part:

Now, as you know, I am a big proponent of the theory that this year, with so many polls moved up to Feb. 5th, early states and the South play a far smaller role than they have in the past. I think it is increasingly becoming like a general election in that the bigger states carry far more weight (CA, FL, NY, OH, PA, etc.). And this is where Thompson has really not made much of a dent at all, presumably because he had to pick his battles. Polls show Fred trailing with gaps in excess of 20% behind the front-runners in California and Pennsylvania, and in other key states (Ohio, Michigan, etc.) he is normally about 15% behind. Arguably a key win in early states NH and IO might generate a surge to give a candidate enough momentum to be competitive in overcoming a 15% gap in the polls in other states, but that only helps Romney, as, again, Thompson hovers in or near last place in IO and NH, so a 15-20% gap in the larger states is almost certainly insurmountable.

Perhaps worst of all, his momentum is actually negative, as he had been gaining ground (capping out at around 14-15% in states like PA in June and July, but since has slipped to a consistent 10-11% in recent months). And in turn Huckabee and especially Romney have gained momentum, as the press will increasingly focus on them the closer we get to the polls in the early states where Romney leads. Ominously, some head-to-head pollsters are no longer bothering to poll Thompson at all.

So, in conclusion, I present you with the obvious: I boldly declared it in February, I wrote definitively about it on your site in April, I have hammered it home throughout the summer and fall, and now, moments away from Thanksgiving, I feel obliged to once again point out the giant elephant in the room that gets larger by the day.

You know too much about politics to continue to ignore these facts. I admire enthusiasm and positive thinking as much as the next guy, but with where we are today in the primary cycle, I demand a reality check. This email is a gauntlet. Think of this as a subpoena on political wishful thinking. You run a successful political website, you are an influential figure in NY GOP circles, you are ranked as one of the top 40 under 40 politicos in NY, and as a result, you cannot stick your head in the sand -- you have an obligation to face the music and acknowledge it loud and clear in all those circles in which you travel (as they say in Pulp Fiction): "[Fr]ed's dead, baby, [Fr]ed's dead".

And he's right. Fred's team is now hoping for third in Iowa which isn't too inspiring. I'm readying myself to let go of Fred. I'm just not there yet.

Fred's plans have been getting great press and my overlord Allahpundit writes: "He should stick to the “true conservative” stuff and start hitting the fact that while Rudy and Mitt are throwing punches and Huckabee’s chattering about faith, he’s rolling out one policy proposal after another."

The truth is, I remain wed to the belief that Fred is the guy. He's the one that can win both the primary and the general election and do it on true conservative positions. I'll let go of this, I promise, as soon as a few results roll in and prove me wrong. Here's what I want from my Giuliani-fan friends in return: if McCain has some upset in either NH or Iowa, I want all of you Giuliani people to admit at that time that McCain's surge will be due to the fact that Republican primary voters just won't vote for a pro-choice, anti-gun, ex-Mayor of New Yawk. They will be choosing McCain as a direct reaction to Giuliani. They will be worrying about Romney or Huckabee in the general and they will find McCain to be conservative enough to support in both. If you don't believe me, believe Patrick Ruffini who writes "This is going to sound crazy, but I've got a simple message for my friends in the Rudy, Mitt, Fred, and Huck camps: watch your backs for John McCain."

If Giuliani walks away with the nomination, you won't find a bigger supporter than me. I will cheerlead for him like no ones business. I will go door to door. I will write glowing posts and tell you all stories about a pre-Giuliani New York that was practically a warzone. He is the man, he will be my man, just not yet.

Try "world peace" instead

Ok:

At one campaign event, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said she prayed to God to help her lose weight.

From a NY Times article about eating habits on the campaign trail.

Fred?

I'm working on a Fred Thompson post which I hope to have up sometime tonight. It's not going to be all roses, let me tell ya. In the meantime, check out his two new ads. I think the bottom one is very powerful.

"The time has come"

If you say so, Mr. Olmert.

We want peace. We demand an end to terror, an end to incitement and to hatred.

We are prepared to make a painful compromise, rife with risks, in order to realize these aspirations.

I came here today not in order to settle historical accounts between us and you about what caused the confrontations and the hatred, and what for many years has prevented a compromise, a settlement of peace.

I just hope this painful compromise isn't only on the Israeli side.

Song of the Day

"Sunflower" by Paul Weller.

I was in my freshman year at Boston's Northeastern University in 1994. I had been to Scotland for the first time the previous summer and couldn't quite adjust to being home. And, well, Boston wasn't home anyway.

I had met this German guy in Edinburgh on my first night there. He had just come back from a three day music festival, had long hair and rode a motorcycle. To a 17-year old Karol, he was heaven. (Of course, when he told me he was 23, I lied about my age and said I was 20. Years later I would stun him with the truth). My boyfriend back home, whom I had been beyond crazy about, just couldn't compare to this guy who would, the following summer, hitchhike from Germany to Scotland to meet me. We spent two amazing days walking around the most beautiful city I'd ever been to. And then my Contiki tour bus had to leave. He said I should stay with him. I was thinking my parents probably wouldn't take that very well.

The German boy and I stayed in touch, we're in touch even today (he's married and lives in England). He wasn't good at letters but he'd call me often when he'd get home from being out. It would be 6am his time, 1am mine, and I'd sit on my fire escape talking to him until the sun came up over Boston.

The one time he ever sent me anything, it was a mix-tape that I played so much it eventually cracked in half. It was my first introduction to Velvet Underground ("Venus in Furs") and also the first time I realized I could enjoy music in other languages (like Die Toten Hosen's "Hier Kommt Alex".) My favorite song on it, though, was "Sunflower" by Paul Weller. "We have no future, we have no past" seemed to sum up our thing fairly well and "on winding streets, we walked hand in hand" would always remind me of Victoria Street and that first summer in my beautiful city.

R.I.P.

UPDATE: Redskins fan Funkypundit remembers the man.

I don't like us being "almost socialistic"

I prefer the free market in everything, including sports:

"Imagine an NFL where a previously unheard of Russian billionaire could buy up, say, the Cleveland Browns, purchase Tom Brady and half the current New England Patriots team along with the best players from all the other teams and win the Superbowl easily every, single, year. You can’t do that in American sports because of the regulations – the draft, the salary cap, the rules on ownership etc – it is a curious state of affairs but compared to the laissez-faire capitalism of English soccer, American sports are almost socialistic."

-Jimmy Bradshaw

I feel bad for you, son

I first saw this on Dawn's blog when she posted the chart based on the Jay-Z song "99 Problems", and I've had parts of it forwarded to me by various hip-hop-listening friends, and now I've found the entire set of "rap songs explained through charts and graphs". It's genius and I love it. This one is probably my favorite:

It's from the Dr.Dre song "What's the Difference?", a line by Xhibit that goes "What's the difference between me and you? (What?) About five back accounts, three ounces and two vehicles."

Check out all the charts here and if you're not sure what song they're referencing, click the chart for the youtube video of each one.

In NY

I become a real homebody when the cold weather hits so this year I decided I'm going to make a dedicated effort to leave the house and, well, do stuff. I've been seeing a lot of movies, more in the last month than in the combined six months prior, and want to start going to more museums, dinners and shows. Here's a shortlist of things I want to see, do and experience in the next few weeks, in no particular order. Please leave your own plans in the comment section, I can use more ideas.

1. My parents are both Francophiles, which I find confusing, so I want to check out "French Founding Father: Lafayette's Return To Washington's America" exhibit at the New York Historical Society. They're also featuring a "Here Is New York: Remembering 9/11" exhibit but I'm not sure I want to see it. It's hard to go on about my day after solemnly reliving the slaughter of 3000 of my people.

2. Although, having said that, I also want to go to the Museum of Jewish Heritage which is a "living memorial to the Holocaust," the slaughter of six million of my people. I feel sort of embarrassed that I haven't been there yet. It's like when Schindler's List came out and every Jew had to see it. The museum opened ten years ago and it's shameful for NY Jews to neglect it.

3. See "Love in the Time of Cholera." Look, I know it's going to suck, you know it's going to suck, and the American people know it's going to suck. It can't not suck. There's a Shakira video attached to the film, for the love of Mary. But I loved the book, by far my favorite by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and need to see the film. And yes, commenter WZA, he probably did steal some ideas from Nabakov's "Ada". Let me know when someone adapts that for film and I'll see it too.

4. Take a cooking class. I've been meaning to do this for a few months and I even found one I'd like to do. Now it's just a matter of getting off the couch.

5. Spend an afternoon at ABC Carpet&Home Warehouse in the Bronx. I love this place. When I had frequent access to a car, I'd be there once or twice a week. The ABC in the city is insanely priced but the warehouse rocks. My favorite sheets and towels were bought there. It's always empty, too, so it's like this peaceful shopping experience through an enormous, beautiful space.

6. Restaurants- I generally want to go out to brunch more often. My friends and I used to do it as a matter of course on weekends but let the tradition lapse. Otherwise, I want to eat at Per Se, Ilili (just opened Lebanese restaurant), Masa, Boqueria and Smith's.

Picture of the Day

A wet Park Avenue in the afternoon:

I love election season

**Rudy calls Romney a "not outstanding governor" in an interview conducted by Philip Klein. Go read the whole thing, not only because Philip had to cut his Thanksgiving weekend in NY short to go to New Hampshire and get it. (Sidenote for those commenting on my movie post below: I went to see "No Country For Old Men" with Philip the other night and it was definitely the best movie I've seen in some time.)

**John McCain loves America enough to "make some people angry".

**Nobody can tear down a candidate quite like Robert Novak. You're up, Huckabee.

**The ex-Taliban spokesman, now Yale student, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, was in a pro-Obama Facebook group but recently left the group over objections from friends. He gives Ben Smith a very quotable response on why Obama can't win.

**Speaking of Facebook, my Facebook friend Errol Lewis has a piece today about Mitt Romney's Mormonism. He says it matters, and should.

UPDATED:

**Does Hillary's style evoke concern among critics? Oh, c'mon now.

**I read this piece about John Edward's candidacy and mostly just thought "Oh yeah, John Edwards is still running for president."

Does everyone I know have bad taste in movies or do I?

I did not like "Knocked Up", a movie that was recommended to me by no less than five of my friends.

What's your man got to do with me?

Australia elects new prime minister

Or, as the NY Times puts it:

Bush Ally Defeated in Australia

Global test

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have meetup groups in Paris. The only Republican who represents in France is Ron Paul.

Hat-tip Ark.

Dear Facebook friends,

Yes, I got a little carried away with the Superlatives application.

A surprise to no one except the media

Democrats are the party of the rich:

Democrats like to define themselves as the party of poor and middle-income Americans, but a new study says they now represent the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional districts.

Who else could afford their tax plans?

Say what, now?

I would try to sum up the story of an Arkansas mayor resigning his post because he says he was abducted by a cult of satan worshippers in the 1970's and has been living under an assumed name ever since, but I'm afraid I couldn't even begin to do it justice.

Since it seems to be a photo-blogging sort of day...

Who are these people already waiting in front of Best Buy? I took this picture at noon today and Best Buy won't open until 5am tomorrow. How big a discount can they be getting that they'd wait outside (temperatures are supposed to drop to the 30's tonight) for over 20 hours and miss Thanksgiving with their families? Sick, no?

Day off silliness

Am I the proud owner of two new pairs of sunglasses? I might be:

It's my one splurge (I've written about that before here). I live for nice sunglasses and can't wait to wear the top ones in Vegas in two weeks and the bottom ones in Aruba or Trinidad (still deciding) in four.

Quote of the Day

"If you’ve followed The Iraq War using The New York Times as your only source, you’re pretty confused right now. The narrative would run as follows: for four and half years American imperialists visited Armageddon on the innocent people of Mesopotamia. Then for four months the same foul forces employed a military shill and delivered a more attenuated version of hell-on-earth. Then on November 20, 2007, in some kind of Hawkingesque spacetime singularity, there was sudden hope and progress in Baghdad."

-Abe Greenwald.

Read the whole thing.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours

I love that the Norman Rockwell painting above is called "Freedom From Want." Thanksgiving is a great day to be reminded how lucky we all are to have that freedom.

Song of the Day

"Tell Me What You Want" by Mase. It's an oldie but still a goodie.

Question for those that want a Republican win in '08

Would you rather run against Hillary or Obama?

Democratic 2008 presidential race tightens: Reuters poll

Resolved

I am either going to Trinidad or Aruba for New Years.

Shameful. And I don't just mean the on-field play.

Apparently there is a culture of sexual harrassment at Jets games:

At halftime of the Jets’ home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, several hundred men lined one of Giants Stadium’s two pedestrian ramps at Gate D. Three deep in some areas, they whistled and jumped up and down. Then they began an obscenity-laced chant, demanding that the few women in the gathering expose their breasts.

The Constitutional scholars, I mean, security guards, say they can't do anything about it:

Throughout halftime, about 10 security guards in yellow jackets stood near the bottom of the circular, multilevel ramp, located beyond the stadium’s concourse of concession stands and restrooms. One of the guards was smoking a cigarette; many fans do the same during halftime on the giant ramps, which are located at each corner of the stadium. Another guard later said they were not permitted to do anything about the chants at Gate D because of free speech laws. Yet when a reporter tried to interview two security guards after halftime, he was detained in a holding room, threatened with arrest and asked to hand over his tape recorder.

I guess when there's no game to watch, that's what happens:

But the Gate D tradition at Giants Stadium apparently is unique to Jets games; the Gate D ramps are comparatively empty at Giants games. Perhaps forlorn Jets fans, who have rarely had a winning team to support, are seeking alternative entertainment on game days.

“This is the game,” said Patrick Scofield, a 20-year-old from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., who has attended several Jets games the last two seasons.

Some girls have no problem with the ritual:

Denisse Rivera, a 23-year-old from the Bronx, was on a first date Sunday. When she arrived at the crowd at Gate D, several men pointed at her, signaling men at all levels to chant in her direction. After a brief moment of hesitation, she flashed them. Then she took a bow.

“I don’t care,” Rivera said when told that video clips of previous incidents, taken on cellphones, ended up online. “I love my body and I like what I have, so let everybody share it.”

I wonder if she's getting a second date.

Hat-tip SMVP.

Hate it or love it, ARod's on top

Alex Rodriguez wins third MVP award.

Fellow Yankee fan Philip Klein was trying to tell me yesterday that the Yankees would be better off without him. I just think that's crazy talk. I agree with this:

Yes, Rodriguez has disappointed in the playoffs in the past. But the bottom line is this. Firstly, clutch performance is mostly about luck: the same player who is clutch one year can be a choke artist the next. And two, the Yankees ought to have every bit of confidence that Rodriguez can not only get them to October, but win them a title once they’re there. Rodriguez is the MVP - and the highest-paid player in baseball - for a reason: no player provides his team with a bigger head start toward winning a World Championship.

Less guns, more shootings

Headline: Effectiveness of D.C. gun ban still a mystery

Actually, there's not a lot of mystery here:

Yet the gun culture on the city's mean streets during the crack epidemic has not abated, police statistics show. Even as the homicide toll declined in D.C. after 1991, the percentage of killings committed with firearms remained far higher than it was when the ban was passed.

Guns were used in 63 percent of the city's 188 slayings in 1976. Last year, out of 169 homicides, 81 percent were shootings.

There are more gun crimes today than before they instituted the gun ban. "Complete failure" doesn't really begin to cover it.

In making by far their boldest public policy decision, Washington's first elected officials wanted other jurisdictions, especially neighboring states, to follow the lead of the nation's capital by enacting similar gun restrictions, cutting the flow of firearms into the city from surrounding areas.

"We were trying to send out a message," recalled Sterling Tucker, the council chairman at the time.

And they did just that. Unfortunately, the message was "we have an unarmed citizenry. Come and get us."

Via Fark.

(Cross-posted on Rightwing News where I am guest-blogging on Tuesday.)

UPDATE: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the DC gun ban case.

Approve or disapprove

How much does Bush's current approval rating matter toward his presidential legacy? I say not at all in my latest post on Jewcy's Cabal blog.

Hip-hop politics

A Fly Moses at Big Man Moves has a comparison of all the presidential candidates to their rapper counterparts.

I like most of them, but disagree strongly with the Giuliani/Nas one, especially that they're both one-hit wonders.

First, Rudy has much more going for him than 9/11. The more he talks about what he did for NY before we were attacked, the better it will be for his chances. He saved a crippled and dying city. Nas really only has one great album. He's been resting on his laurels ever since. A Fly Moses writes that Rudy and Nas are both good during a "beef". I disagree. Nas's dis song at Jay-Z, "Ether", was way overrated while Jay-Z's "Takeover" had his foot firmly on Nas's neck. Also, Nas is now signed to Jay-Z's label. Rudy would never cower and bow like that. Ask Nas, he don't want it with 'Hov.

I also take exception to my boyfriend 50 Cent being called "an afterthought" though the rest of his comparison to John McCain is pretty good.

Via Steve Silver.

Hilarious

Mike Huckabee is picking up some serious steam. I'm not sure how he can lose with Chuck Norris at his side:

Hat-tip Claudio, the first person I knew who supported Huckabee and suddenly not the only.

UPDATE: Wow, what a small world. Turns out I know the guy who made this ad. He is the fabulous Kevin Brown at Dresner Wickers who conceived, wrote and produced it.

In NYC

I want to go see a documentary about Yiddish theater in the East Village. Anyone else? Watch the preview before you all tell me "no".

A well-kept secret at that

U.S. Secretly Helps Pakistan Guard Nukes

This makes me feel a little better about that unstable country having weapons that could wipe out humanity. A little.

Late-night Question

What's a movie of questionable quality that you have to watch every time it's on?

Yes, I'm asking because I just watched Cruel Intentions for the 67th time.

4!

Having solved all other problems...

British government aims to create nation's first formal motto

I'm just happy that it's not only our government working on the pointless.

The more things change...

Oooh, ooh, mine too:

My family's way of saying "things could always be worse" was saying, "We could always be in Russia."

Matthue, another very cool person I met at that Jewcy party, has the story, at the link above, of Russian police shutting down a yeshiva and throwing everyone in jail overnight. Wait, what year is this?

(Sidenote: Matthue has written several books, one recently called "Candy in Action", check them out here.

Friday question

Would you date someone whose political views were very different from yours?

Yes, yes, I realize there are tons of exceptions ("she calls herself a liberal but isn't into politics", "he's for lower taxes, supports the Iraq war and wants social security reform but still thinks he's a Democrat") but on a very basic level, you're a conservative, she's a liberal, does it matter to you?

My own take is that yes it does. I never thought it did, mostly because I can convert pretty much anyone, but I feel like there will be other fundamental differences in our perspectives if we differ too wildly on politics. And while you might be able to convince them to your side on some issues, maybe even change their partisan persuasion, their values won't change that much and the ones that caused their political positions in the first place will still be there.

What say you all?

Bad movies with bad messages

Vets for Freedom, an excellent group based out of DC, is protesting Brian DePalma's new film "Redacted", calling it propaganda and saying it slanders American troops. The movie is being pretty universally panned so they probably needn't worry all too much.

Quote of the Day

"What gives? I love Mexicans!"

-Funkypundit after taking a political match quiz and finding his closest match is Tom Tancredo.

I took the quiz at Glassbooth and found that Mike Huckabee's beliefs matched mine 79% of the time. Tancredo was next at 75%, Fred Thompson at 74%. I match more closely with Ron Paul at 72% than with John McCain at 71%. Sadly, Rudy only matches me 68% of the time. I like the guns, Rudy not so much, but, strangely, the issues of Crime and Punishment are where we most part. I am neutral on the death penalty (it's just not one of my issues but I tend to be pro-life on everything and so oppose the death penalty) and he supports it, I am against hate crime legislation and he's for it, and I support relaxing drug laws while he opposes that. All the Democrats are in the 40's percentile with Gravel and Kucinich bringing up the rear in the 30's.

Here's another hit, Barry Bonds

Home run king Barry Bonds indicted on perjury, obstruction charges

Should've taken that hot dogs and beer route.

Days with Dawn

Dawn Summers and I got sideswiped by a truck yesterday and we're not sure what to do about it. And while you're already over there, you may as well add to the chorus of voices telling her that no, Guns-N-Roses is not a hair band.

YESSSSSSSS.

Tim Brown at Yahoo Sports:

Say this for Alex Rodriguez: In a take-no-prisoners winter in which he dared walk away from the New York Yankees and $81 million, in which he sought to obsolete the game's previous record salary (his own), into which his swashbuckling agent entered with a knife between his teeth, and into which he went armed with one of the great offensive seasons in baseball history, he lasted 18 days.

That's almost three weeks. A lesser man might not have gotten to Veterans Day.

Me and McCain

My latest post on Jewcy is a theory familiar to Alarming News readers: John McCain can win the Republican nomination. Be afraid.