Quote of the day

"The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world," wrote the popular historian G.K. Chesterton, "nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait."

From this week's Onion....

MC Serch Updates List Of Gas-Face Recipients
QUEENS, NY—For the first time since the list's 1989 release, MC Serch of 3rd Bass unveiled an updated Gas Face list Tuesday, removing such longtime recipients as Hammer and P.W. Botha in favor of more current wrongdoers. "Osama bin Laden... gets the gas face," MC Serch, flanked by Prime Minister Pete Nice, told reporters. "Bill O'Reilly, shut the f--k up! Gas face!" Also included on MC Serch's newly revised Gas Face list were Scott Peterson, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), and Grand Puba.

The Sports Guy offers this succinct analysis of the NBA finals on today's page 2. A good piece that is pretty tough to disagree with, even if he is giving Timmy the business. Thanks to Rodney Rogers being on the Nets, a Wake player will end up with a ring either which way. He is right though, it is not as much fun with out Shaqfu and Kobe (especially the rooting against them part).


Admit it, you never thought you would miss Shaq and Kobe so much. Duncan might be the Most Valuable Player in the league, certainly the first guy you would build a franchise around ... but after watching him for six seasons, should we still worry about his crunch-time nerves like this? Will he ever peak the way Hakeem did in '94 and '95? Will he ever destroy the league for an entire spring, lay his stamp on everyone and everything, and head into the summer thinking to himself, "You know what? There isn't a guy in the league who can stop me."

Another gold bull market story. I'm buying.

This guy goes to my sister's school and lived in her dorm this past year. Pretty amazing feet for an 18yr old to fake an airlines (if the allegations are true). I know he kept telling my sister that he was really starting an airlines and was working on it 24-7according to Chels.

The always enjoyable and hysterical Gregg Easterbrook (via page 2), of the Brookings Institute and editor of the New Republic, opines this blurb on Hillary Clinton's new book.

"It Takes a Village to Write a Hillary Book: Last year, TMQ pointed out that Hillary Rodham Clinton was lying when she claimed to be the author of "It Takes a Village," which was actually penned by a ghostwriter named Barbara Feinman Todd. Specifically, TMQ noted last year, "Hillary's official U.S. Senate biography states, 'In 1997, she wrote the best-selling book It Takes a Village.' This is an outright lie. Wouldn't it be a nice gesture if official Senate biographies did not contain lies?" Clinton's current Senate biography repeats the lie that she wrote "It Takes a Village," while going on to assert that Clinton "also wrote 'Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids Letters to the First Pets.' Her latest book, 'An Invitation to the White House' was an immediate best seller … in addition, the Senator has authored numerous magazine and journal articles as well as op-ed pieces." All these statements are outright lies, as the other Hillary books were also ghosted, while staff members penned the "numerous magazine and journal articles" for which Clinton now claims authorship.


Comes now "Living History," another book "by" Hillary Clinton. Set aside whether this much-hyped marketing vehicle contains so much as a single sentence that rises above the level of statements of the obvious regarding events that have already been reported in excruciating detail. Once again, Clinton is presented as the author of what is actually a ghosted book. The world learned that Barbara Feinman Todd wrote "It Takes a Village," because the publisher inadvertently issued a press release announcing the true author; Hillary threw an ego fit and demanded that all reference to Todd's existence be removed from the book and its press materials, which was presented to the world as if it were the product solely of Clinton's late-night labors.


"Living History" is a 562-page book. A work of that length would take an average writer perhaps four years to produce; a highly proficient writer might finish in two years, if working on nothing else. Clinton signed the contract to "write" the book about two years ago. About the same time, she also was sworn in as a member of the United States Senate. Clinton took an oath to protect the Constitution and to serve the citizens of New York. So in the last two years Clinton has either been neglecting her duties as a United States Senator -- that is, violating her oath -- in order to be the true author of "Living History," or she is claiming authorship of someone else's work. Considering that Clinton has made almost daily public appearances during the period when she was supposedly feverishly "writing" her book, let's make a wild guess which explanation pertains.

If you didn't write something, and claimed to the world that you did, what you would be doing is lying. Wouldn't it be a nice gesture if United States senators did not lie?

Perhaps you're thinking, "But all people who reach the limelight lie about being authors." No, they don't. Consider that the previous book project of Maryanne Vollers, one of Hillary's ghosts, was about Jerri Nielsen, the doctor who had to be airlifted out of Antarctica. How was that book presented? As "Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole" by Jerri Nielsen with Maryanne Vollers. No lying about the true author.
TMQ wonders how Sen. Clinton found the time to write a 562-page book.
Consider that John McCain's autobiographical work, "Faith of My Fathers," proclaims on its cover "by Mark Salter, with John McCain." The true author's name is there for everyone to see, and this neither detracts from sales ("Faith of My Fathers" was a commercial success) nor causes anyone to think any less of McCain. Famous people who care about their honor, like McCain, freely acknowledge using ghostwriters -- this is called "honesty." Famous people with serious ego problems, or who don't care about their honor, lie about being authors.
Now suppose you were a college student, hired someone to write a thesis paper for you, then submitted the work as your own. Suppose, when caught, rather than confess, you indignantly insisted you were the true author. What would happen to you is that you'd be expelled. For you to lie about having written something would be considered inexcusable.
As for Hillary's presidential aspirations, voters have on occasion elected presidents who turned out to be liars, such as Richard Nixon, and lived to regret it. If voters choose a president whom they know in advance to be liar, woe onto the voters. And what is it that the jacket of Hillary Clinton's new book proclaims to all the world?

Gary North offers this primer on the neo-conservative movement and its roots.


There was a fundamental difference between the older conservatism and neoconservatism: the neoconservatives have never believed that the government's failures are systemic. They have never called for a rollback of the state, any more than their Establishment predecessors had called for a rollback of the Soviet Union. They hope merely for containment. Furthermore, as their influence grew during the 1980's as a result of Reagan's victory, they hoped to get in on the action, go to Washington, take over the administration of the funds, and use them for productive purposes. They planned to do well by doing good. They have certainly done well.

The neoconservatives have always been insiders. They have always had bases of operations that have served as entry points into the ranks of the power brokers. The conservatives were always outsiders who were barely able to gain a toehold on the fringes of power. Never having received either aid or encouragement from the state, they were not enamored by its potential for making the world better.

The difference between neoconservatism and conservatism has been the difference between the greased skid and the bootstrap.

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Randomly ran into this blog that has an interesting piece from the Guardian about Billy the Kid. Apparently, the Kid may have lived longer than is originally thought and they are testing his mother's DNA to prove this.


Rumours that the Kid had survived to fight another day and had, in fact, died as an old man in Texas have circulated for years. So has the suggestion that Garrett was not really the upright lawman of his image but someone who killed an innocent man to help the Kid escape. Now plans are under way to use modern science to solve the riddle.

Claiming that he had been deceitfully promised a pardon by Governor Lew Wallace in exchange for information on other killings, Billy the Kid escaped as far as a friend's ranch at Fort Sumner, about 100 miles away. Garrett was waiting for him there. As he entered the house, Garrett shot him in the heart.

But an alternative theory suggests that it was Garrett who smuggled the gun and that the man who died was a drifter friend of the Kid's called, confusingly, Billy Barlow. This theory posits that the Kid lived long enough to return to New Mexico in 1950 under the name of Brushy Bill to demand the pardon he was denied.

All-time Pittsburgh Pirate squad according to ESPN.com.

Also worst city for singles thanks to Forbes. I'll post the link shortly.

Robert Novak offers this update on the recall Grey Davis movement. Unfortanetly, my friend Allison helped him get elected, but fortunately, it looks like his reign of terror will soon come to an end.

While bipartisan establishment politicians remain in denial, realists now are taking the recall movement seriously. Dave Galliard, a Sacramento-based political consultant seeking signatures for recall petitions, says 520,000 voters have signed. He is aiming for 1.2 million, providing insurance that the required 897,000 valid names are collected. If this is done by July 18, an election must be held in September or October. Gov. Davis, at 21 percent approval in a recent private labor union poll, cannot be expected to survive.

I still think 99 cents is too much per song, but so far Appel has been succesful in getting people to download. 3.5million dls to date and 45% of the songs were downloaded along with an entire album. If the service was available to windows, I would be all over that new Black Eyed Peas album.