Internet habits are a changin’:
…surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 percent of searches from 20 percent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.
“As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased,” said Tancer, indicating that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn.
The media has forgotten, even though he’s been delivering some barn-burners.
A reader writes:
Thank you for your posts today about Sarah Palin’s perplexing selection of an amniocentisis considering her pro-life stance. I am a woman who is opposed to abortion and refused to have one in any of my three (advanced maternal age) pregnancies because of the heightened risk of miscarriage. Both my husband and I agreed that no matter what the genetic difficulties our child might have, this child would be our gift from God and we would do everything to protect him/her.
Unfortunately, we learned via level-three ultrasound at 19 weeks that our first child had a heart defect. When the maternal-fetal specialists at our top-tier hospital told me I would need special monitoring on a weekly basis I did not hesitate to make every appointment or test. Tragically, our daughter was stillborn and our hearts were broken, but I was grateful for having been entrusted with carrying her for the 34 weeks she lived on this planet. Even with this loss, I refused to have an amnio in my subsequent pregnancies because I was unwilling to risk the next babies’ lives, especially considering that tools such as ultrasound could go a long way at revealing and thereby preparing the doctors to handle any problems the babies might have.
When I read that Mrs. Palin elected to have an amnio, I seriously doubted her pro-life stance.
When I read that she got an airplane after her water had broken, I began to believe that she would rather risk her special needs child’s life than have her baby at one of the many top hospitals in Dallas. Any person mildly familiar with Down Syndrome knows that these babies typically have heart defects and feeding problems that can be critical and should be addressed immediately. Presumably, Ms. Palin did a little research and knew this and yet got on that airplane.
Pro-life Catholic but voting for Obama.
The deflection strategy of confessing his own faults upfront is critical. And typical of a frat boy in his twenties. Listen to Matt Welch – who knows McCain as well as anyone – explain:
Sending more troops to Afghanistan is fine, but without an overarching strategy, we are doomed to repeat history. TX Hammes is not encouraged by either candidate’s campaign rhetoric.
The Oil Drum has a very helpful fact-filled take on the current offshore drilling legislation:
It is not too surprising that the oil and gas industry is not in favor of the legislation. The legislation provides for a whole host of benefits, and a big piece of the cost would be paid for by new taxes on oil and gas companies. The off-shore drilling provision could best be described as window dressing.
The remainder of the cost would presumably be covered by higher taxes. I am willing to bet this will not happen. Instead, the higher cost will just be added to the deficit. Looks like legislation both Democrats and Republicans can favor!
Rich Lowry echoes Ross:
The enduring scandal of the McCain campaign is that it wants to win. The press had hoped for a harmless, nostalgic loser like Bob Dole in 1996. In a column excoriating Republicans for historically launching successful attacks against Democratic presidential candidates in August, Time columnist Joe Klein excepted Bob Dole — not mentioning that Dole had been eviscerated by Clinton negative ads before August ever arrived.
The press turned on McCain with a vengeance as soon as he mocked Barack Obama as a celebrity. Its mood grew still more foul when the McCain campaign took offense at Obama’s “lipstick on a pig” jab. “The media are getting mad,” according to Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz. “Stop the madness,” urged Time’s Mark Halperin, exhorting his fellow journalists to fight back against the McCain campaign’s manufactured outrage.
The lipstick controversy indeed represented a silly bit of grievance-mongering. But had the Obama camp’s tendentious interpretation of Bill Clinton’s “fairy tale” put-down as a racial slight generated similar push-back from the media? Had Obama’s ridiculous depiction of Geraldine Ferraro as a quasi-racist? Had Obama’s repeated contention — with no evidence — that Republicans were attacking him for looking different?
It wasn’t Ferraro’s comments as much as the Clinton campaign’s refusal to disown such comments that irked me. Obama hasn’t been a saint by any means, but I don’t think his elbow jabbing has equaled McCain’s in any conceivable way; it’s also telling that Lowry is forced to refer back to the primary for evidence of press bias. The press has turned, but for good reason. If you can’t win without lying, you don’t deserve to win.
Almost the entire world is appalled at the farce of the Palin pick, and what it says about McCain’s contempt for foreign policy and national security. Here’s a take from Israel:
"This would never have happened in Israel, ever" remarked a journalist friend, referring to the choice of Governor Palin, whose credentials in the realms of foreign policy, statecraft and the military are limited in the extreme. With irony bordering on the painful, the journalist added, "Sarah Palin has restored my faith in Israel."
Yes: Palin would be an unimaginable pick in any other advanced country. Foreign leaders and publics have been told one thing by this selection: McCain is not a serious world leader. But for neocons who regard alliances as impediments to the projection of raw military power, the opinions of mankind are actually a reason to vote for Palin.
The Economist considers the concept of planetary engineering – planet-scale projects, such as injecting the upper atmosphere with sun-deflecting sulfur – as a solution to global warming. I much prefer the idea of developing new non-carbon technologies or experimenting with technology to deflect or arrest warming to throwing the global economy into a permanent slowdown.
A horrifying case in Italy leads to a possible prosecution of a journalist for criticizing the Pope. I see no reason that critics of Catholicism, however crude, should be punished for free speech. It’s the same principle behind the absolute right to mock Islam, or any religious figure for that matter. Bilgrimage comments here.
The Dish 