Just wanted to let people know, in case they forgot, that there is a Headline section over in the left sidebar. Sometimes I (and my cobloggers) don't update it for a while, but generally it gets a few new headlines per day. Lately it's been getting more, particularly because someone gave me a new widget that allows me to scan breaking news more easily than before.

I keep wanting to break a couple of pieces out into the main section, so maybe I'll just mention them: That piece about British theater is interesting because a left-leaning guy is actually annoyed that the British stage is so stultifyingly repetitive and boring in its left-wing messaging, and wonders where the "mischievous right-wing" plays might be found. He finds not a single right-wing playwright, though someone does offer up Tom Stoppard as a "small-c conservative." The reasons given for the lack of any true right-wing fare in the theater tracks pretty much with the reasons for the similar lack of right-wing movies made by Hollywood.

And one of the most satisfying tears of a truly repellent man I've ever read is over there. Roger Kimball comes not to praise Norman Mailer, but to bury him under invective so cutting that it's a delight. I knew Mailer was repellent, but I didn't know how repellent. The man had an absolute hard-on for murderers, praising them as "brave" rebels against the status quo. In fact, he often wished he could summon such "courage" and kill a man for no good reason. He very nearly got his chance when he stabbed his wife almost to death.

Here's Mailer on abortion. Which is "hell" for many women, he allows.

But I wouldn't call him a political fellow-traveler on this issue just yet:

I think when a woman goes through an abortion, even legalized abortion, she goes through hell. There’s no use hoping otherwise. For what is she doing? Sometimes she has to be saying to herself, “You’re killing the memory of a beautiful fuck.” I don’t think abortion is a great strain when the act was some miserable little screech, or some squeak oozed up through the trapdoor, a little rat which got in, a worm who slithered under the threshold. That sort of abortion costs a woman little more than discomfort. Unless there are medical consequences years later.

But if a woman has a great fuck, and then has to abort, it embitters her.

Nuance. It should be noted that Mailer was such a ridiculous egotist that when he's speaking of a "beautiful fuck," he is of course speaking of himself, and the precious "squeak" he left behind, and the woman's "hell" of having to part with the genetic fruit basket he gave her as a parting gift.

Oh, one last bit: someone tells me that Target is offering the complete Firefly series on DVD for $14.88.

Posted by: Ace at 11:27 AM | Comments (19)
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President Bush just vetoed the Labor/HHS/Education spending bill because it contained "some unnecessary spending." Senator Reid and House Speaker Pelosi wrote the president a hate-letter to complain:

“Key to this dialogue ... is some willingness on your part to actually find common ground,” Pelosi and Reid wrote. “Thus far, we have seen only a hard line drawn and a demand that we send only legislation that reflects your cuts.”

In other words, the Democrats are pleading, "C'mon, make us an offer. No, another offer." After their shenanigans attempting to link this bill to the Veterans Affairs bill this is nice to see. It emphasizes the fact that the Democrats are not nearly as in charge as they thought in January.

Responding to Reid and Pelosi, the White House subtly mocked the Democratic leadership:

“The failure of Congress to carry out its basic responsibility to fund the government cannot be resolved with letters. It can only be resolved by Congress getting its work done, and not wasting dwindling legislative days on political statements and legislation that will never become law.”

Nice.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:24 AM | Comments (9)
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Do you ever get the feeling that Hillary Clinton isn't being entirely honest with you?

Posted by: Ace at 10:28 AM | Comments (38)
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Mildly funny, painfully true.

In my Public Support Meter display, let me find out that the news media has run, in the same magazine, one story blasting us for going to war for minerals and another story blasting us for not acting on the continuing mineral shortage back home.

There should also be simultaneous stories about the outrageous expense of the war effort, and another about how the troops are under-funded and under-equipped. Set it so that I somehow lose public-support points with each story.

Thanks to JF.

Posted by: Ace at 10:25 AM | Comments (73)
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Nice.

Though they threaten this all the time, they just might be serious. After all, they have to be mindful of public opinion whatever the hell it is Glenn Greenwald is on about at the moment.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that Democrats won't approve more money for the Iraq war this year unless President Bush agrees to begin bringing troops home.

By the end of the week, the House and Senate planned to vote on a $50 billion measure for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would require Bush to initiate troop withdrawals immediately with the goal of ending combat by December 2008.

If Bush vetoes the bill, "then the president won't get his $50 billion," Reid, D-Nev., told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made a similar statement last week in a closed-door caucus meeting.

Their remarks reflect a new Democratic strategy on the war: Force Bush to accept a timetable for troop withdrawals, or turn Pentagon accounting processes into a bureaucratic nightmare.

If Democrats refuse to send Bush the $50 billion, the military would have to drain its annual budget to keep the wars afloat. Last week, Congress approved a $471 billion budget for the military that pays mostly for non-war related projects, such as depot maintenance and weapons development.

The tactic stops short of blocking money outright from being used on the war, an approach that has divided Democrats and fueled Republican criticism that Democrats are eager to abandon the troops. But forcing the Pentagon into a painful budget dance to pay for the wars spares Democrats from having to write a blank check on the unpopular war.

"We will and we must pay for whatever cost to protect the American people," said House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "But tragically, unfortunately, incredibly, the war is not making us safer."

Posted by: Ace at 10:18 AM | Comments (52)
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The deuce you say. Surely not that Boy George.

Police charged pop singer Boy George with false imprisonment on Tuesday after he allegedly chained a man to a wall at his London home.

Hot.

Thanks, I guess, to dri.

Posted by: Ace at 09:58 AM | Comments (92)
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U.S. taxpayers are still upwardly mobile according to a new Treasury study. Sometime in the last year I heard a lot of doom-and-gloom about people who were stuck in the same economic class that they started in. I suppose I should stop watching the evening news...

If you've been listening to Mike Huckabee or John Edwards on the Presidential trail, you may have heard that the U.S. is becoming a nation of rising inequality and shrinking opportunity. We'd refer those campaigns to a new study of income mobility by the Treasury Department that exposes those claims as so much populist hokum.

OK, "hokum" is our word. The study, to be released today, is a careful, detailed piece of research by professional economists that avoids political judgments. But what it does do is show beyond doubt that the U.S. remains a dynamic society marked by rapid and mostly upward income mobility. Much as they always have, Americans on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder continue to climb into the middle and sometimes upper classes in remarkably short periods of time.

[...]

Also encouraging is the fact that the after-inflation median income of all tax filers increased by an impressive 24% over the same period. Two of every three workers had a real income gain--which contradicts the Huckabee-Edwards-Lou Dobbs spin about stagnant incomes. This is even more impressive when you consider that "median" income and wage numbers are often skewed downward because the U.S. has had a huge influx of young workers and immigrants in the last 20 years. They start their work years with low wages, dragging down the averages.

This sounds very good, and it provides useful contrast with John Edwards' Two Americas shtick. The article doesn't mention it, but there are a few caveats: first, the study only applies to taxpayers. Those who don't file taxes probably don't have any income mobility at all (duh).

Also, the study cannot give us information about those who filed taxes in 1996 (the first year of the study), but who--for whatever reason--didn't file in 2005. If those people (especially from the lowest income groups) filed in 1996, but didn't file in 2005 then the study may be missing a large block of people who saw their incomes drop.

Still, the study should be used to put the lie to the idea that the economy is horrible and we're all going to have to get used to the taste of cardboard. Things are not bad, contrary to the dreams of the Left. In fact, economic indicators show that things are just fine.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:06 AM | Comments (40)
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Politico reports on Democratic failure when it comes to fulfilling the promises made about the Iraq War. I'm not very concerned with the Election 2008 consequences; it's not like a disaffected Lefty is going to vote Republican, although it may lead some on the Far Left to sit out.

I'm more interested in the impression that Democrats are blinking in bewilderment, wondering what the hell happened:

Democrats plan to spend the December recess reviewing their strategy and determining if they missed opportunities to put limitations, even if they were smaller than war activists were demanding, on BushÂ’s war policies.

Some Democratic strategists are warning that congressional leaders are “muddling through” with a strategy that carries both political and military risks for the party.

After their mid-term election sweep, Democrats let themselves think that war policy would magically conform itself to their wishes. They forgot (1) they do not have an overwhelming majority in Congress or among the public; (2) Congress does not directly control war policy; (3) the Iraq War wasn't lost yet; and (4) Republicans, including President Bush, weren't just going to give up.

Their forgetfulness led to their indignation when President Bush, fresh from Election 2006 announced the surge strategy change. They had enough focus to axe Attorney General Gonzales, but then turned on each other when it came time to replace him. Politico reports that Democrats have passed forty bills attempting to place limits on the Iraq War. All but one failed; that one was vetoed.

I think Republicans were in a funk for most of the spring and summer this year. But we've seen many successes this fall. As the primaries get closer, a change in attitude will translate to election gold.

Huh. I guess I was pretty concerned about the Election 2008 consequences after all.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:28 AM | Comments (30)
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Washington man attempts to loosen a stubborn lug nut with a .12 ga. shotgun. Hilarity ensues.

Surprisingly (to me), alcohol was not involved. Just man-frustration.

Hey, we've all been there. Knuckles bleeding, sweating like a pig, and cursing like a longshoreman with a bad back.

Sometimes you just want to grab a shotgun and show that lug nut who's the boss.

Resist this urge, and try an impact wrench instead.

h/t ghengis, aka ghengis

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 06:43 AM | Comments (33)
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This is a PSA for the moonbats, just so they know precisely who they're cutting lots of slack and carrying water for.

Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learnt...

H/T Tigerhawk

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:39 AM | Comments (65)
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