A reader writes:
I'm sure other readers have e-mailed you about this, but the the smell of marijuana can be wholly avoided by using a vaporizer.
They work by vaporizing the THC without actually burning the bud. The result is a smokeless high and an odor more reminiscent of potpourri than weed. The best vaporizers are still prohibitively expensive, but cheap (and portable) units can be had for under $200.00. It's a small price to pay to be rid of the unmistakable smell of marijuana.
A reader writes:
I read the whole article on CNN. As expected, Limbaugh's description of the diet is seriously flawed.
For one thing, the guy didn't just eat Twinkies. He ate a can of vegetables, a protein shake and a multi-vitamin every day. Limbaugh doesn't mention those trivial
details in the transcript. The Twinkies provided the diet's caloric content. The nutrition came from other sources. So, referring to it as a "Twinkie diet" is disingenuous. Another point Limbaugh fails to mention: when you do the math, the guy only ate five individual Twinkie cakes a day. That's not exactly stuffing your face with Twinkies. Finally, though Twinkies have a reputation as being tiny cakes of death, they're really nothing more than 150 calories of flour, sugar, eggs, and lard (plus a bunch of flavor and texture additives with scary names, that are nonetheless ubiquitous in processed foods). The fat content is 4.5 grams, so eating five a day amouts to 22.5 grams of fat intake a day, significantly less than the 30 grams that constitute a low fat diet. And the cholesterol content? A mere 20 mg, or 7% of the RDA. Multiply that by 5 and you've got a grand total of 35% of your daily recommended cholesterol content. No wonder his cholesterol count improved!
Limbaugh, of course, mentions none of this. Instead he uses this diet to attack Michelle Obama, and reinforce his listener's desire to be told that everything those danged liberal authority figures have told them up to now is false, and the way to really lose weight is to stuff yourself with Twinkies, Doritos and Cheese Puffs.
(Image: Dwight Eschliman took a photo of every ingredient in a Twinkie.)
"Well, [a torture investigation] may be on the list as well. I’m not afraid of going after the Bush administration. I wasn’t brought here by the establishment. When I ran for congressman in 2008, I’m just a freshman year, George W. Bush, Orrin Hatch, and Bob Bennett, three Republicans, they campaigned against me. So I don’t mind going back and looking at ‘em. So I don’t have any hestitation whatsoever," – Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), a member of the House Government Oversight Committee.
Remember that we were asked to judge the success of the Iraq surge by the criterion that it succeed in turning a lull in sectarian violence into a democratic multi-sectarian democracy where sectarian cleansing did not take place:
A spate of bombs exploded outside the homes of several Christian families across Baghdad early Wednesday, compounding a sense of fear and vulnerability among Iraqi Christians 10 days after a bloody siege at a church here. Three people were reported killed and about 25 wounded in several bombings and mortar blasts.
The Christians have been sent a message about the future Iraq. They are not in it.
A very viral anniversary video from Bloggingheads:
Allahpundit wonders what Romney will do if he is way ahead in the New Hampshire primary polls and, like Tom Jensen imagines, other candidates "end up just writing it off and focusing their efforts on states like Nevada, South Carolina, and Florida that could have more competitive contests":
What does [Romney] do then?
Stay there and campaign anyway, knowing that it’s a must-win and he can’t afford to take any chances, or start moving money into South Carolina and Florida sooner than expected? He needs momentum to compete on a social-con playing field in South Carolina; if everyone else pulls out of New Hampshire early, the momentum from winning there will be diluted. What’ll be really interesting is if Daniels or some other dark horse makes a run at him up there, forcing him to defend the state, while the winner of the Iowa caucuses moves directly on to SC to start campaigning there. In that case, you’ll have the “centrist” candidates waging war on each other in New Hampshire while the “true conservative” is already busy stumping for votes in the next, and most important, primary. What would Karl Rove say?
We have a potential Fox News analyst looking for work. Andrew Shirvell, the assistant AG caught stalking a student body president for being gay, has finally been axed:
[Michigan Attorney General Mike] Cox’s office said Monday an investigation showed that Shirvell made additions to the blog during work hours on state computers, and he made telephone calls from work to get Armstrong fired from a summer internship in the Washington, D.C., office of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”
David Lat looks at the legality:
In fairness to Shirvell, de minimis use of office computers or telephones for non-work-related purposes shouldn’t be a firing offense.
If it were, many of us would be out of jobs. Shirvell could argue that Cox is merely using the “misuse of state resources” argument as a pretext to fire him for expressing unpopular views.
But Shirvell’s conduct went beyond this. According to Cox, Shirvell also (1) lied to state investigators and (2) engaged in “behavior that, while not perhaps sufficient to charge criminal stalking, was harassing, uninvited and showed a pattern that was in the everyday sense, stalking.”
And it sure didn't help going on the Daily Show. But, as David notes, getting fired because of Jon Stewart is almost a text-book case for FNC/RNC martyrdom. So when's the Fox gig coming?
John Dickerson left a comment on Palin's Facebook wall:
I wanted to see if any of the other participants would respond, as they sometimes do. They didn't—because within two minutes, my post had been deleted from the steady stream of acclaim from Palin fans congratulating her for tweaking the media and urging her to run for president. It's the first time I've been kicked out of a place of worship. Whoever administers the page for Palin had deleted me so fast I didn't even have a copy of what I'd written. I posted another similar note:
I think Governor Palin and the author are talking about two different time periods. Governor Palin says "everyone who ever goes out shopping for groceries knows that prices have risen significantly over the past year or so." The article she cites, and quotes above, says that the "inflationary tide is //beginning.//" Also, Governor Palin uses the word "significantly" which can't apply to the first nine months of the year (since grocery prices increased at a record slow pace) and if it's just the last couple of months a term like "moderate" might have been more precise. Recent price increases have not been like the 6 percent increase of 2008.
That post was promptly deleted as well.
Dickerson has written about Palin's wall censorship before. A reader provides further proof:
When Sarah Palin (or whoever) started posting on Facebook last year, I held my nose and became a "fan" so I could get her updates straight from the source. Unable to resist on two or three occasions, I made a couple of replies in the comments thread to point out factual errors or challenge flaws in reasoning – nothing crude or offensive, no name calling, etc. – just innocent objections to the facts as she presents them.
When I read her latest Facebook post, I tried to comment on her selective and misleading quote from Reddy's WSJ piece. But guess what? I've been permanently BLOCKED from replying to her posts!
I would understand if I had used profanity or called her names or whatever, but nope, I'm blocked for being just mildly critical of her representation of facts and her strange leaps in reasoning. We already knew she hides from reporters and refuses to do a real interview, preferring instead to lob grenades from the safety of the Facebook bunker. I didn't realize the bunker itself was being censored.
When you live in a fantasy world, it is all the more important to police those small nuggets of reality that creep in. Remember: this is the politician who once complained that the press was violating her First Amendment rights. She's still in high school. And which high school bully would ever allow his critics to write on his wall?
Beardtracker is here!
Jobless claims fall to their lowest level since the Lehman crash; and exports are surging on the weakness of the dollar (which will surely weaken further after the Fed's QE2). GM posts its largest quarterly profit in 11 years and is pitching an IPO. Worth noting as straws in the future wind.
The Dish 