Squirrel Updates

A YouTube on making a "squirrel melt." And a poem by Yeats:

Being out of heart with government
I took a broken root to fling
Where the proud, wayward squirrel went,
Taking delight that he would spring;
And he, with that low whinnying sound
That is like laughter, sprang again
And so to the other tree at a bound.
Nor the tame will, nor timid brain,
Nor heavy knitting of the brow,
Bred that fierce tooth and cleanly limb
And threw him up to laugh on the bough;
No government appointed him.

Who knew squirrels were libertarians? Then this reminiscence from a reader:

I had the "pleasure" of growing up in south Arkansas during the 50’s. We were dirt poor and almost all our food came from a garden, some pigs and chickens, fishing and SQUIRRELS. During squirrel season at least one meal a day was composed of the succulent little beggers. Wild squirrels, as compared to the "live on your front lawn" variety, are tough as shoe leather but oh so tasty. Arguments always ensued over who got the head(s). You would crack them open and suck the brains out. A true country delicacy.

West Virginia Reax

Rove blames it in part on the KKK’s legacy. I’m glad I didn’t say it. Dave Weigel:

The good news for Obama? The states he’s losing aren’t worth as much as the states he’s winning. I discussed this with Eric Dondero on BlogTalkRadio last night. Dondero was crowing that the Democrats were losing Southern whites forever with their foolhardy Obama nomination, and I argued that they could afford to, because the electoral power of those voters is vanishing. West Virginia’s a good example. From 1913 to 1963, the state had six congressmen and eight electoral votes. Now it has three congressman and five electoral votes. It’s the 10th slowest-growing state: A political party would get far more out of locking down Hispanic votes in Nevada (5 electoral votes, set to become 6 electoral votes in 2012) than locking down poor whites in West Virginia or even Kentucky. Congressional re-districting is going to pulverize these states.

Ed Morrissey:

…[Clinton’s win] doesn’t change a couple of immutable truths. First, Obama will win the nomination, and second, McCain will win West Virginia in the fall. Much has been made about no successful candidate since Woodrow Wilson losing this state in a general election, but the battleground states will be elsewhere. If Democrats can turn Ohio, they won’t need West Virginia, and if Republicans can keep Ohio and pick up Pennsylvania, West Virginia won’t help Obama anyway.

James Joyner:

Does this change anything? Probably not. One suspects Dick Cheney could have beaten Obama in this one. As impressive as Clinton’s string of victories in states dominated by white people with blue collars, there’s no evidence that her argument of “and therefore only I can win in the Fall” is gaining any traction. Indeed, Obama has been getting flooded with superdelegate defections during that streak.

What Clinton’s victory does do, however, is to give her a thin rationale for hanging on. And for the media to carry on with its prescripted story lines.

Roger Simon:

The press is unimpressed. This may be the first time in election history in which the press has withdrawn from a race before the candidate.

Larison:

The Democratic race has already ended, and yet it will never end.    

Overcoming Bias

Jacobs:

"I find very appealing the idea of a group blog dedicated to isolating and (if possible) rooting out the habits of mind that cause us to misunderstand the world. But after much careful scrutiny I have discovered that the bias that needs to be overcome is always — always — bias exhibited by other people. Especially religious people and conservatives, and sometimes those who like poetry. I’d love to find a site where bloggers dedicated themselves to overcoming their own biases, but in the meantime: Delete."