Category: The Dish

His break from liberal orthodoxy is already making waves. The WSJ casts partisan scorn:

So far Mr. Obama has been shrewd in setting himself off from left-wing orthodoxy, though perhaps mainly as a matter of style. But if he is going to ask voters to consider the Presidency an entry-level position, he’ll need to do more than dress up liberal commonplaces as bold truth-telling.

Nice open mind there, eh? Left Coast blogger Darren thinks it’s a very shrewd move. Is the NEA going to endorse a Republican anyway? Lewis Solomon sees Obama catching a wave:

[I]n one national program, the number of teachers who support performance pay has almost doubled in many states after a few years of trying it.

No matter. Many critics remain unconvinced – offended, it seems, by the very notion of connecting teacher pay to student achievement. We have to ask these naysayers this question: if adults (teachers) should never be affected by how well children (students) do in school, does that mean that teachers are not responsible for student learning?

Performance-pay opponents are running out of arguments and allies. School reformers must seize the moment.

For the record, I’ve long believed teachers should get better pay for better exam results, and bad ones should be fired. Eduwonk is not as convinced that teachers are ready for the move though. Some are already whining.

It appears to work. In Finland, anyway.

Megan is against it:

Nixon fell because his behaviour was inarguably criminal, and worse, petty criminal. And he had it all on tape.

Bush’s behaviour is not inarguably criminal. Impeaching him will generate a gigantic mess. And the negative feelings about that gigantic mess will almost certainly be laid at the Democratic Party’s door. An impeachment is almost the only thing guaranteed to deliver a Republican president and the loss of at least one house of Congress in 2008.

But Cheney? Not sure the same caveats apply. Dave Weigel responds:

So an impeachment trial would 1) waste Congress’s time, 2) take the Democrats’ knees out, and 3) humiliate Bush and legions of wide-eyed Republicans. And… what are the arguments against it?

How did we ever survive without eye-ball tattoos? Shannon Laratt cautions:

The procedures themselves were effectively painless because there aren’t nerve endings in the surface of the eye, and we did additional control with lidocaine drops which numbed the lids. After pain is fairly minor, although we all have bruising and some discomfort. I have what appears to almost be blistering between the sclera and conjunctiva which is worrying me a little but so far I don’t have reason to believe this is abnormal. Aftercare, at least in my case, is antibiotic drops and a patch.

In any case, we’ll keep you updated!

I really have to emphasize again that the procedure was extensively researched and done by people who were aware of the risks and possible complications and that it should not be casually attempted. Now that this experiment has been started, please wait for us to either heal or go blind before trying it!

Can you do Lasik at the same time?

How can you stay mad at a man who can write this?

On the other hand, my rather strong impression is that while the president CAN think, he DOESN’T, much. The Iraq blunderings, the poverty of his off-the-cuff oratory, the endless repetition of tired, empty cliches long discredited, the Harriet Miers fiasco, the stupid squandering of his small remaining political capital on that major-stupid immigration bill…  not much thinking there that I can see.

…I feel it myself rather strongly — a great reluctance to think. If I wasn’t chained to a computer trying to support my family, I doubt I’d have a thought from one week’s end to the next.

Genius. And all the more so for the obvious use his enemies will make of it. Derb is like Ron Paul. His honesty, even when it’s repellent, is so much preferable to the spin, lies and focus-grouped blather that now infests the discourse. (Hat tip: Whiskey Fire.)

An "enhanced withdrawal technique", I think.

Their opposition to the Iraq war prompted a major slide in U.S. support for France, which in turn had a big impact, according to the Economist:

Between February 2002 and March 2003, the percentage of Americans who had a favourable view of France fell from 83% (it’s hard to remember it was ever so high) to just 35%. By 2005, that aversion to all things gallic was costing France about $5 billion-worth of exports…

The full paper is here.

It drastically helps reduce the risk of Parkinson’s. David Harsanyi asks:

My only question is how many major news organizations will give this politically incorrect fact the attention it deserves? If eating tofu lowered your risk of Parkinson’s by 54 percent would it be a front-page story? Should it be a front-page story if tobacco does the trick?

A reader sends in an email from his nephew in Iraq:

Yup, still in Baghdad. I fuckin’ hate this sweaty, shit-hole country. At least i got satellite internet hooked up now. About 18 of us chipped in and bought – yeah we frickin’ bought a satellite dish about 5 foot in diameter – stored it in one of the cans we live in until the English-speaking towel-head connected everyone’s cable. So life is pretty peachy for Iraq.

As for Julie, we met at Ft. Rich. She was supposed to greet and welcome the unit that was returning to Ft. Rich. except they got extended 3 months during the flight back home. Yeah, I fuckin’ know. They literally turned the plane around and dropped them off back in Kuwait. Good thing they take all yur ammo away when it’s time for the flight home. Shit, maybe that’s the reason why, cuz id shoot myself too … you know, just in the leg or something so i could go home for good. I’ll just claim it was an accidental discharge (a.d.). All I’d get is an article 15, and right now that doesn’t look like that bad of a trade. Good to hear from you. Take it easy.

Hang in there. Help is on the way.

(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty.)