Archive for the ‘Raised Eyebrows Dept.’ Category
Unnamed Senior Bush Officials Not On Vacation
As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior [unnamed, unattributed] Bush official said. [Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu, "Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting: White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials", 4 September 2005.] [Later:] Correction to This Article A Sept. 4 article on the aftermath of […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
"Biblical Proportions"
Hard work. Think 'bout it a lot. My heart bleeds, I have to admit. I feel the President's pain. "It was not enough for the president to bank his plane and look at the window and say, 'Oh, what a devastating site,' " Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, said in a statement […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Condi Lends a … Foot
What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue [in New York city], Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Behold Capybara: Fish!
Most rodents are mouse-sized, but they range up through marmots, beavers, agoutis and maras to the sheep-sized capybaras of the South American waterways. Capybaras are prized for meat, not just because of their large size but because, bizarrely, the Roman Catholic Church traditionally deemed them honorary fish for Fridays, presumably because they live in water.* […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Food Stuff, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Who Supports Whom?
It was a large home in a well-to-do suburb north of the city. Two American flags adorned the yard. The prospect's mom greeted him wearing an American flag T-shirt. "I want you to know we support you," she gushed. Rivera soon reached the limits of her support. "Military service isn't for our son. It isn't […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Not For Our Kind of People
Staff Sgt. Jason Rivera, 26, a Marine recruiter in Pittsburgh, went to the home of a high school student who had expressed interest in joining the Marine Reserve to talk to his parents. It was a large home in a well-to-do suburb north of the city. Two American flags adorned the yard. The prospect's mom […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Gosh, They Had No Idea!
In the matter of Supreme-Court nominee Roberts, I read someone quoting someone about the tens of thousands of pages of documents that the White House was refusing to release about Roberts' legal career, his opinions and ideas, his writings on the law, and such things. The thought that lept into my mind was: what is […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Notes from Waxman's Office
With some regularity I get these interesting little statements from U.S. Representative Henry Waxman's Government Reform Minority Office. Here are the two most recent ones. Permanent Estate Tax Repeal Would Save President, Cabinet Millions of Dollars Monday, July 25, 2005 — Rep. Waxman has released a new fact sheet showing that a permanent estate tax […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Pink Lemons
The inimitable snopes.com, on their "Unanswerables" page, lists these two items one after the other: I just read a blurb that pre-packaged foods can cause people to turn gay because of too much estrogen. If I was only allowed one question for snopes, I would ask if this is true. Is it? Does the color […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
"Struggle" vs. "War"
WASHINGTON, July 25 – The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission, senior administration and military officials said Monday. In recent speeches and news conferences, Defense Secretary Donald H. […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
An "Uncle Bruce"
Meanwhile, Rick Santorum, perhaps the most intolerant member of the Senate, turns out to have a gay chief of staff/communications director. When asked how a gay man could speak for someone with Santorum's record of homophobia, Robert Traynham said "Senator Santorum is a man of principle, he is a man who sticks up for what […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
What's That In Your Briefs?
Okay, maybe it's just me, but here was this advertisement that I noticed in an article at TalkLeft ("New Damaging Information About Karl Rove", although there's no guarantee the ad will be there when you look). Over a picture of a youngish guy in a power-blue shirt and power-red tie sitting comfortably at a desk […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Republican Fortunes
Last night we ate at our semi-local Pho restaurant. After our big bowl of tasty noodle soup, we were given fortune cookies, standard chinese-restaurant fare, although this was nominally a Vietnamese restaurant. The one Isaac opened said: Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it. It sounded to us like an explanation for the [alleged] […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Heavens to Murgatroyd
This just in from WKYT, 27 Newsfirst in Lexington, Kentucky: FRANKFORT, Ky. — A special grand jury indicted three of Gov. Ernie Fletcher's subordinates, including his deputy chief of staff, on various misdemeanor charges, including criminal conspiracy and political discrimination. Dick Murgatroyd, Fletcher's deputy chief of staff and former deputy transportation secretary, was indicted Wednesday […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Eighth-Century "Traditional" Marriage
Today I started reading a mystery novel by Peter Tremayne, Badger's Moon. This book continues his series feturing Sister Fidelma. The stories are set place in mid-eighth-century Ireland. To orient his readers who might be unfamiliar with the customs and laws of the time, Tremayne puts an "Historical Note" at the beginning of the books. […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., The Art of Conversation
Chicken Feathers
Yes, this is actually about chicken feathers. Partly, at least. During my reading this morning, I read a science brief (rather like this one: "Poultry Feathers Made Into Plastic Mulch" by Sharon Durham at Agricultural Research Service news) about some Agricultural Research Service research and engineering going on that has developed some processes that convert […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., The Art of Conversation
363 Tons
I can feel pretty jaded, worn down even, by stupendous, jaw-dropping political revelations which arrive with such machine-gun speed that there's no time or energy left for one's jaw to drop. But, this story managed it. It begins with the release of a report from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and his Minority Office of the […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Hussein a Gambler?
Be honest, now. Shortly after the US invaded Iraq, would you or would you not have been surprised to find Saddam Hussein playing slot machines at a casino in Connecticut? A tribal court in Connecticut has imposed a $33,070 civil penalty on two New Hampshire men for allegedly attacking a man at the Foxwoods Casino […]
Rest Assured, Nervous Americans
Phew! White House officials acknowledged yesterday that the public's gloomy mood about the Iraq war is forcing President Bush to take a more assertive and public role to reassure nervous Americans and Republican lawmakers about the White House plan for victory. Bush had hoped the successful January elections in Iraq would boost the popularity of […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Atheistic Compulsion
I think the most frequent charge levelled at atheists by the religious, usually evangelical Christians, is that we must be immoral* people without [their] God's laws to guide us. Utter rubish, of course, but these critics are not renowned for applying the brains their God gave them. At any rate, I found the following amusing, […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics