Month: July 2008

The McCain-embraced Armageddon pastor, the one who’s so fond of Catholics, has thrown a legal tantrum at Youtube and temporarily forced them to remove all the video evidence – including Max Blumenthal’s classic, "Rapture Ready," of his loopiness. It can’t last, of course. The videos will re-surface on Youtube and are available elsewhere. And Hagee is becoming so extreme only Joe Lieberman will soon feel able to consort with him.

The money quote:

"You won’t be able to stop them (i.e. guys), but you can protect yourself. He who created you knows what’s best for you!"

James Dobson would love a Christianist version. Sandmonkey despairs:

Oh, where do I begin? Should I start with the "Men are flies" example, the MEN who made this employed, describing themselves?

Or with the complete disregard to personal responsibility of men when it comes to sexually harassing females theme  of the ad? Or Is it with the paternal tone that god, who created you naked, really really wants you covered for your protection from his other perfect creation? Or should I not even bother, given that there is a joke there about lollipops and licking that I am simply not man enough to make on this blog? Yeah. maybe I just won’t bother.

One commenter:

“I’m a veiled woman and I liked the ad. I didn’t see it as offensive at all. I saw it as a creative way of enticing women to wear the hijab. It’s not protecting them from men — only arrogant men would think it was about them. The hijab is protecting women from many evils of the world, including any evil thoughts they themselves may have!”

Matt Continetti goes to the LULAC convention to see how McCain and Obama were received. Not a flattering contrast for McCain. And he’s trapped in a very GOP bind:

McCain could make drivers licenses for illegal immigrants an issue, but he’s unlikely to do so. It seems he wants to stay as far away from the immigration issue as possible. That’s because the right continues to distrust McCain, and championing immigration reform won’t do anything to allay that distrust. Look for McCain to mention immigration as little as possible, and to emphasize border security when he does. Which means the issue has been ceded to Obama–and with it the Latino vote.

He doesn’t believe him:

“Prime Minister Malki, is, has got his, he is a leader of a country,’’ Mr. McCain said, according to a pool report. “And I am confident that he will act, as the president and foreign minister have both told me in the last several days, that it will be directly related to the situation on the ground, just as they have always said. And since we are succeeding and then I am convinced, as I have said before, we can withdraw and withdraw with honor, not according to a set timetable. And I’m confident that is what Prime Minister Maliki is talking about since he has told me that for the many meetings we have had.”

A little different from his 2004 statement.

Quite a commotion. Artist Ron English’s website is here.

59 hot dogs in ten minutes, followed by a 5 hot dog run-off. Some seem more gifted at this kind of thing than others:

“His stomach now appeared as a massively distended, foodfilled sac occupying most of the upper abdomen, with little or no gastric peristalsis,” they wrote in their paper. Levine said the stomach was like no healthy stomach he’d seen in his 30-year career. He compared it to a “giant balloon that looks like it has no limit.” The eater’s previously flat belly swelled out as if he were pregnant.

The runner-up has killer abs.

A reader writes:

The only elements that can leave the Earth on a permanent basis are non-stable isotopes (like Uranium 235) and gasses that are buoyant (they leave the atmosphere and are lost into space). The only gas I know of that we are running out of is Helium.  That is problematic but Gallium and Indium are not leaving earth any time soon.

We will find ways to recycle everything eventually.  We really have no choice in the matter.  When you throw something away you can take comfort that you are not preventing recycling you are just delaying it for a few years.

Of course one is not destroying an an element by placing it in a product. Still, recycling takes money and, at least at first blush, extracting trace amounts of gallium from TV sets doesn’t seem like it would be economically viable.

Winemakers are abandoning the cork. Nige sighs.

A bit of a clusterfuck, but the end result impresses Douglas Muir:

This is the most liberal government Serbia has had since Zoran Djindjic was shot back in March 2003. (I don’t include Djindjic’s hapless successor Zivkovic.) It’s worth recalling that when Djindjic was shot, his approval ratings were in single digits… which is one reason his killers thought they could get away with it. I’m just sayin’.

In a Bloggingheads segment, Jamie Kirchick notes that Obama’s stance against the California initiative sets him apart from Kerry and Edwards in 2004 – and far apart from Bill Clinton’s typical anti-gay political advice to Kerry. The whole dialog – between Jamie and Matt, who clearly irritate each other – is most entertaining.