The Dish

This range of polls is more informative than the snapshot I linked to earlier today – and it suggests that Giuliani is much more resilient. One thing the aggregates say that I wasn’t expecting: Romney gets whomped by all the Democrats. Perhaps at this point, it’s mainly name recognition. But it’s not encouraging for the Romney supporters.

A reader notes:

From that article you linked to:

"One theory put forward by the researchers is that the females do it to attract males."

I guess if I was a guy koala I’d be all about that.

So a lesbian koala and a Pacific Northwest Arboreal Octopus walk into a bar …

Not a good idea.

You thought last night was boring? Well, this wasn’t boring. It was just horrifying. Rob Lowe’s singing defies belief:

Mr Frum has a cow about the report in the Sunday Times about military resistance to Dick Cheney’s desire to bomb Iran:

"Myself, I very much doubt that there is any actual content to the Times’ story. But leave that to one side. Isn’t it interesting how this story has made the left-wing blogosphere quiver in glee? Once upon a time, the prospect of generals defying civilian authority horrified liberals and leftists: "Seven Days in May", etc. Today however to be a liberal is to applaud when a special counsel tosses journalists in jail and to side with Douglas MacArthur over Harry Truman. Truly the world has turned upside down."

A reader notes:

Now, anyone who has actually watched Seven Days in May knows that it was about a military plot to overthrow the US government (probably inspired by a real-life plot against De Gaulle by generals who opposed his peace initiative in Algeria). The Sunday Times piece, if it’s accurate, indicated that a some generals and admirals would resign rather than implement an order to attack Iran. Obviously, there is a huge difference between an affirmative act of rebellion and a fairly minimal act of conscience.

Obviously.

It’s happening in South Africa too. I should add that I have mixed feelings about this development, and certainly don’t see it as some dreadful retreat. It’s a sign of cultural integration, which is something I’ve been fighting for most of my adult life. And integration need not mean the end of all difference. There is a critical distinction between integration and assimilation. After the Castro post, some of you asked for a link to my essay on the subject of two years ago. Here’s a pass-thru link courtesy of TNR, if you’re interested. Money quote:

Slowly but unmistakably, gay culture is ending. You see it beyond the poignant transformation of P-town: on the streets of the big cities, on university campuses, in the suburbs where gay couples have settled, and in the entrails of the Internet. In fact, it is beginning to dawn on many that the very concept of gay culture may one day disappear altogether. By that, I do not mean that homosexual men and lesbians will not exist–or that they won’t create a community of sorts and a culture that sets them in some ways apart. I mean simply that what encompasses gay culture itself will expand into such a diverse set of subcultures that "gayness" alone will cease to tell you very much about any individual. The distinction between gay and straight culture will become so blurred, so fractured, and so intermingled that it may become more helpful not to examine them separately at all.

An anti-Romney email from the former head of the state’s Christian coalition. Uh-oh.

I don’t mean to get Mark Steyn all excited but a reader writes:

We also have a rescue dog, and were told by the shelter that she is a mix of beagle and rottweiller. Our term for that (and as far as we can see, the only term for that) is Beguiler. Our other dog is a potcake.

Beguilers, puggles, bagels … all very post-breed, aren’t we?

I swear to God.

Literally too terrified of being kidnapped to sleep in their beds, they walk through the night for safety. One militia in the foresaken country is known as the Lord’s Resistance Army. It has kidnapped thousands of children. Here’s how one teenage former soldier in the army described their preparation for battle:

"When you go to fight you make the sign of the cross first. If you fail to do this, you will be killed. You must also take oil and draw a cross on your chest, your forehead, and each shoulder, and you must make a cross in oil on your gun. They say that the oil is the power of the Holy Spirit. Some young children believe it – and those who have been there so long, five, seven, ten years, they believe in it very much."

The full story can be read here.