Standing up for the little guy

Just when you thought Sierra Leone had hit rock bottom this happens:

"FREETOWN, Sierra Leone Dec. 6 Thousands of fans rioted at Sierra Leone's national stadium Saturday when authorities substituted two local dwarf comedians for a widely anticipated out-of-town midget duo. Police arrested 30 people, amid damage and dozens of injuries.

Daylong radio ads had whipped up excitement and ticket sales for Friday night's scheduled performance by the two Nigerian entertainers, Aki and Paw Paw."

- posted by Mark at 6:09 PM; link

 
Party Politics

From Australia:

"DEMOCRATS leader Andrew Bartlett mauled a female Liberal senator and hurled abuse at her during a late-night fracas over stolen wine.

A shaken Senator Jeannie Ferris was left nursing an injured upper arm after chasing Senator Bartlett, who had taken five bottles of wine from a Liberal Party Christmas barbecue in Parliament House.

The ugly altercation spilled on to the floor of the Senate chamber, where Senator Bartlett repeatedly shook Senator Ferris by the shoulder and called her a 'f...ing bitch'.

Senators, including fellow Democrat Lyn Allison, watched in horror as the purple-shirted and purple-faced party leader lurched at Senator Ferris, grabbed her then hurled abuse."

- posted by Mark at 12:39 PM; link

 
Arlen's Darlin'

President Bush in a Tuesday speech:

I want to thank Arlen Specter, who is the state campaign co-chairman for Bush-Cheney '04. I'm proud that he's traveling with me today on Air Force One. He'll attest to the fact there's not much air rage on Air Force One. (Laughter.) But I'm proud of his leadership for the state of Pennsylvania. I look forward to working with him as the chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the United States Senate to make sure my judges get through and get appointed. (Applause.)

- posted by Carney at 10:36 AM; link

 
Sir Mick

Keith Richards on the knighting of Mick Jagger

- posted by Mark at 11:32 PM; link

 
William Safire

William Safire recently wrote a column on same-sex marriages from his "libcon" perspective. I decided to actually respond via email because it was a subject about which I'd given some thought, and I have a little idea that should appeal to libertarian conservatives. But this isn't the point. The point is that I got the following response, which I thought I'd share for humor value. (And why did I say "via" when "by" will do?)


Dear Reader:

As you can imagine, I've been swamped with e-mails responding to
my column in recent months. I read them all, most assuredly, including
yours. But I cannot begin to answer them individually or I would have no
time left to write a column that delights, illuminates, stimulates or
infuriates.
Ergo this automated response. (Curious how "automated" has
replaced "automatic." And why do I use "ergo" when "therefore" will do? )
Don't take offense, and don't stop writing. I'll keep reading what
you send me.

Sincerely,

William Safire

- posted by Ethan at 10:41 PM; link

 
Re: Martha

Being a former Galvestonian, and having just spent the thanksgiving holiday there, I feel a certain connection with Robert Durst. See, Galveston is the kind of gulf-coast island-city that inexplicably collects the flotsam and jetsam of humanity. This is the character of the city--its odd cast of malcontents who periodically emigrate, only to be sucked back in by the gravity of... what? Mutual misery? Familiarity? Maybe it's that anyone can make it in G-Town, and no one cares that you failed in the past, 'cause we'll all blow it in the future. Durst is welcome in Galveston, just as anyone is. Hell, he's as close to a celebrity as we've got--for now.

[Add: I just read that Robert Durst's bail was set at $2 billion for "jumping" bond twice. (He was caught while stealing a sandwich while he reportedly had $10,000 cash in his car. I love this guy.)]

- posted by Ethan at 5:03 PM; link

 
Martha

Henry Blodget has published the first of a series of articles meant to examine the Martha Stewart case. Feeling personally unthreatened by Martha's purportedly fascistic home-making skills, I've felt alienated from the limitless resevoirs of public hate that have coming pouring down on her. Blodget is sympathetic enough to Stewart's plight to give her a fair shake, I think, so I'm looking forward to seeing how much substance is in these charges--and how much they're simply feuled by democratic ressentiment. The most interesting part of Blodget's present piece, though, is the full disclosure, which is about half as long as the article itself. He's been prosecuted for the same things Martha has. So the article has the additional novelty appeal that, say, an article by O.J. on the verdict of the Robert Durst case might have had.

- posted by Mark at 12:33 PM; link

 
The new politics of anti-semitism

The Volokh Conspiracy has an interesting link to an EU report on anti-semitism that the EU decided to shelve.

Anti-semitism has become the one form of discrimination (besides the reverse variety) that Republicans (or at least neo-cons) care about--and the one sort that the far left ignores. In this topsy-turvy world only Patrick Buchanan is a rock of stability.

- posted by Mark at 1:28 PM; link

 
Two items courtesy of the Drudge Report

1. This is astonishing. Dean seems to say he'll break up GE (though not all of it), Fox (on merely ideological grounds) and most other media conglomerates if he's elected president. Undoubtedly, he said this to appeal to his core constituency on the left--but could he actually mean it? This is like a serious Republican candidate for President endorsing the abolition of the income tax. I can't wait to see how it plays out.

2. A lighter story: The real Ronnie Dobbs at 74.

- posted by Mark at 10:40 AM; link

 
Contra Devo

A new book is out about evolution, ambitiously titled Life's Solution. There's a NYT review of it here.

Though not endorsing intelligent design theory, the author thinks most dogmatically atheistic evolutionary theorists (Gould and his cronies, that is) are so invested in not finding anything meaningful in the evolutionary process, that they fail to recognize the significance of convergence of evolved traits (e.g., the fact that the eye has independently evolved various times in different creatures). He suggests that such traits are evolutionarily inevitable. And, if I read the review correctly, he suggests that this makes evolution more compatible with creationism than has been heretofore appreciated.

My personal view is that if God is omnipotent etc., he could have made the world through any damn mechanism he pleased. Why assume He'd be so sloppy as to not cover up his tracks? Anyway, fans of Lamarck might be interested in this.

- posted by Mark at 2:08 PM; link