Mark Steyn's got a new book out that I should probably buy.

This book isn't an argument for more war, more bombing, or more killing, but for more will. In a culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of "suttee" - the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural: "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

Thought the Ace Man might chortle briefly at this Obama "story."

"Democrats never like to see an uneven distribution of the good things of life," said one senate aide who helped to write the legislation. "Sen. Obama has more than his fair share of charisma, while so many senate Democrats go without. It's not right for so much charm and personality to be in the hands of so few."

Fascinating, distressing article about the plight of poverty-level families looking for housing in Los Angeles. Article's also a great argument in favor of abortion.

Oh my. Today Bush signed a law "that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests.""

Bush says this doesn't mean the weaponization of space. But then he also said he hadn't already decided to go to war with Iraq. And that he would be a uniter, not a divider, and... well, you get the idea.

Anyway, you never know. Maybe some well-meaning schlub with a wrench and a sense of moral fortitude will ruin Bush's grand designs, regardless.

Supporting hate-crime laws seems like a no brainer to a lot of people. It's sort of like banning "partial-birth" abortion in that regard. Let's make racism a crime! Let's stop killing babies! What's to argue!

Well, everything's always more complicated than it seems, and the truly tough issues often come with very slippery slopes. I saw this story in the UK about a teenage girl charged with a crime for refusing to sit next to Pakistani kids. It seems like a fine example of how easily criminalizing certain types of behavior can lead to criminalizing certain types of thought (however reprehensible it may seem).

Back in 2000, Christoper Hitchens visted North Korea and penned this excellent article about it. In light of recent events, I post it here. Trust me, it's a pretty fun read. Not too heavy, but also depressingly fascinating. (If that makes any sense).

No, not blogging, I'm sure I'll be back off the horse in no time (is anyone still out there?). Today I missed one fingernail while clipping my nails. I have no idea how such a thing happens, but it did, and that lone fingernail has been bugging the hell out of me all day.

So I carved the nail off with an Exacto knife. Crude, but effective. Is this what they did before nail clippers?

Aww, Alex was so excited when I started blogging again. And then I stopped. because I am busy 5000. Anywho, Ezra Klein makes a great little list of what it means to be a liberal, and I think I agree with pretty much everything on it. So if you want to know why I'm a Liberal, go read this other guy...

In fact, as a small business owner currently taking on a fair amount of risk, the exact sort of person pro-business conservatives tend to say they care about, I couldn't agree more with this statement:

Indeed, I think only by protecting from risk can we sufficiently encourage risk-taking. See, for instance, my argument that health care should be guaranteed so no one need ever squelch their entrepreneurial instinct because they fear their ability to get antibiotics if they quit their job.

Personally, I think it's neatly subversive, but on a broader political level, this seems to imply that the bulwark of 1970s feminism is *pro-abortion* rather than pro-choice.

Lapsed Feminist Hillary "Safe, Legal, Rare" Clinton would greatly dissapprove, methinks.

This excerpt from "State of Denial" is pretty good (and depressing) reading. So much for all those "Vietnam Lessons" about letting the military and intelligence guys do their job. Obviously, BushCo ignored smart people against an Iraq War, but my god, they ignored so many smart people who were *for* the war. And thinking last night, I realized that this isn't the first time Radical Republicans ruined a post-war opportunity to create lasting liberty and peace.

Anyone remember Reconstruction?

This past summer, Screenwriterlife did a little contest to see who could come up with the best one-word title. Entrants also included synopses and taglines. This is my favorite.

WI-YATCH!

Logline : Queen Latifah's descended from a long line of witches sworn to never use their powers. But when THE MAN threatens THE HOOD, Queen must accept and master her powers to save the day ... she must train with shaman Whoopi Goldberg, she must become...

WI-YATCH!

Tagline: "Don't call it black magic!"