Periods of global warmth have resulted in, if you can believe it, healthier, taller, heavier, more prosperous people.

Who could imagine such a link between warm temperatures, increased agricultural output, and better nutrition and health for humans?

Plus, get this: Global warming might be responsible for the first mini skirt.

Posted by: Ace at 10:26 AM | Comments (54)
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Andrew Klavan, novelist and blogger, will discuss his recent article in the LAT, "Draft Hollywood."

In less than an hour at Rightalk.

Panic Stations! Not sure why, but I've got serious panic today. So the show will probably be an unmitigated disaster, as I lose the capacity for coherent speech.

In other words, it could just be as compelling as chain-reaction bus accident.

Posted by: Ace at 10:16 AM | Comments (19)
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Man, where's that Andrew Sullivan Outrage Meter when I need it most?

So let me suggest that we take back the word Christian while giving the religious right a new adjective: Christianist. Christianity, in this view, is simply a faith. Christianism is an ideology, politics, an ism. The distinction between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist. Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque. Not all Islamists are violent. Only a tiny few are terrorists. And I should underline that the term Christianist is in no way designed to label people on the religious right as favoring any violence at all.

No, not at all, darling.

I mean merely by the term Christianist the view that religious faith is so important that it must also have a precise political agenda. It is the belief that religion dictates politics and that politics should dictate the laws for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike.

Bear in mind, four years ago Andrew Sullivan was complaining of a similar term used on the left to describe Christians-- "Christers," as the British left likes to call them.

What a difference the FMA has made. Now he's coining his own cutesy-derogatory terms for Christians who don't follow Church of St. Andrew of the Sacred Heart-Ache.

His point, incidentally, is childishly stupid. Everyone's politics are partly formed by their moral and religious beliefs, or lack thereof, or hatred thereof. It's a rather stupid thing to note that conservative Christians' politics are indeed shaped by 1) conservatism 2) Christiantity and 3) Christian conservatism.

The whole hook of this piece -- the big reveal -- is that he's invented a cute new word for this strange new phenomenon.

Posted by: Ace at 09:51 AM | Comments (92)
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How absurd is it that liberals are still talking about this? Or that I am?

A TV clown put in a shoddy performance at a press dinner and took some shots at Bush and the media. This is their new Fitzmas?

Richard Cohen, liberal columnist at the WaPo, dared to point out that Colbert wasn't speaking "truth to power" in the sense he was risking anything.

ColbertÂ… is representative of what too often passes for political courage, not to mention wit, in this country. His defenders -- and they are all over the blogosphere -- will tell you he spoke truth to power. This is a tired phrase, as we all know, but when it was fresh and meaningful it suggested repercussions, consequences -- maybe even death in some countries. When you spoke truth to power you took the distinct chance that power would smite you, toss you into a dungeon or -- if you're at work -- take away your office.

But in this country, anyone can insult the president of the United States. Colbert just did it, and he will not suffer any consequence at all. He knew that going in. He also knew that Bush would have to sit there and pretend to laugh at Colbert's lame and insulting jokes.

Confederate Yankee writes:

For raining on their juvenile parade with very adult reasoning, Cohen has been bombarded by vicious, hate-filled emails—3,506 at last count over four days—that stem from the angst of liberal bloggers that somehow feel Cohen betrayed them. Hateful bile is no stranger to the blogosphere—it exists on both the right and the left—but Cohen is quick to recognize the disproportionate seething on the leftward fringe of American politics, and fears what the left's "digital lynch mob" might portend:

The e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred. This spells trouble -- not for Bush or, in 2008, the next GOP presidential candidate, but for Democrats. The anger festering on the Democratic left will be taken out on the Democratic middle. (Watch out, Hillary!) I have seen this anger before -- back in the Vietnam War era. That's when the antiwar wing of the Democratic Party helped elect Richard Nixon. In this way, they managed to prolong the very war they so hated.

Outstanding.

Posted by: Ace at 09:42 AM | Comments (18)
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I've been waiting for this almost as much as for that BJ and the Bear remake they're always talking about. (And then the sequel, BJ and the Seven Lady Truckers, of course.)

Harvey Weinstein stated, “I am a huge fan of the original series and could not be happier that we’ve joined forces with Glen Larson to bring these iconic characters to the big screen.”

Iconic? Michael Knight and his Cylon Trans Am?

And what the hell is Harvey Weinstein doing in this mix?

Thanks to RLW.

Posted by: Ace at 09:20 AM | Comments (26)
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Ummmm...

While Minuteman civilian patrols are keeping an eye out for illegal border crossers, the U.S. Border Patrol is keeping an eye out for Minutemen -- and telling the Mexican government where they are.
According to three documents on the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site, the U.S. Border Patrol is to notify the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups when they participate in apprehending illegal immigrants -- and if and when violence is used against border crossers.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman confirmed the notification process, describing it as a standard procedure meant to reassure the Mexican government that migrants' rights are being observed.

"It's not a secret where the Minuteman volunteers are going to be," Mario Martinez said Monday.

"This ... simply makes two basic statements -- that we will not allow any lawlessness of any type, and that if an alien is encountered by a Minuteman or arrested by the Minuteman, then we will allow that government to interview the person."

Minuteman members were not so sanguine about the arrangement, however, saying that reporting their location to Mexican officials nullifies their effectiveness along the border and could endanger their lives.

"Now we know why it seemed like Mexican officials knew where we were all the time," said Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. "It's unbelievable that our own government agency is sending intelligence to another country. They are sending intelligence to a nation where corruption runs rampant, and that could be getting into the hands of criminal cartels."

Unbelievable. Simcox's complaint is overstated -- the Minutemen aren't part of the government, so it's not like Bush is giving out information about official state secrets -- but it is, ahem, "deeply worrying" that the President is committed to aiding illegal immigrants.

Thanks to Confederate Yankee, who seems about ready to get on the Impeach Bush bandwagon.

Posted by: Ace at 09:16 AM | Comments (42)
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In Saudi Arabia of course:

Surgeons have reattached the penis of a Saudi man who paid the price for trying to have sex with his Filipina maid after she attacked him with a knife, a hospital source said.

The article goes on to say he was trying to 'molest' the maid. Then she attacked him. In the middle of the night. While his wife was asleep.

Good thing the Saudi authorities are holding on to this dangerous female.
Being a rape victim is 'adultery' and punishable by death in Muslim lands. This episode would indicate that defending oneself from sexual assault is also a crime.

It is well known that Saudis treat their domestic help like slaves whose lives may be toyed with as they please. Violent assaults, deplorable living conditions and forced captivity are not unusual.

Wonder why this lady had a knife on her in the middle of the night.

UPDATE I: The maid was chased around the house and grabbed a knife when she got into the kitchen.

UPDATE II: Its time to celebrate another troll. Please read the comments and tell Lar what a dork he is. Go on, pile on. Don't be shy now. He loves it and that's why he's here.

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:29 AM | Comments (105)
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"The MSCI All Countries World Index <.MSCIWD>, a widely watched gauge of global stocks, hit a record 349.06 -- surpassing the previous peak hit on March 27, 2000."

Not really cowbell, because I could give a fig if foreigners are doing well or not, but it's American-cowbell friendly, because it means we're going to hit the American record this week.

At least that's what Johnny Coldcuts says. Then again, he completely screwed up reporting last week's episode of Prison Break, so you should take the words of a drug-addled time-travelling baloney sandwich with a grain of salt.

Thanks to Dave P, or as I call him, "P. Divvy."

Posted by: Ace at 11:37 AM | Comments (22)
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This woman never seems to talk about anything except the fact that she's not getting any.

Well, now she's really upped the ante in attempting to attract sex partners.

I have to say: I do admire the pluck and determination.

Posted by: Ace at 11:21 AM | Comments (48)
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To clarify:

Yes, Atwar Bahjat was murdered in a cowardly and barbaric fashion by monsters.

Yes, the video of a jihadi victim being beheaded now being circulated by jihadist websites and reported on by the MSM (including the Sunday Times of London) is itself quite real.

But the latter does not depict the execution of Atwar Bahjat.

As Jawa reports, it's actually video of another jihadist murder, that of a Nepalese man, from 2004.

Oh, there are multiple levels of painstaking editorial fact-checking in the media, to be sure.

Just not in the mainstream media.

Posted by: Ace at 10:33 AM | Comments (17)
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