SPITBULL

Washington, D.C.: Most people do not recoil in horror at mice, which look just like rats but are smaller, nor do they loathe squirrels [Ed.: The Warrior Monk is a notable exception], which are the same size and are also rodents but are considered cute. Why do so many people have an instinctive fear and disgust toward rats?

I know I do. I am chilled even to look at them, yet I do not have that kind of reaction against any kinds of bugs or reptiles. What is it, do you think, about rats?

Robert Sullivan: A couple things: the tail. The rats (sic) tail is really really gross. It looks like something on an armadillo, no offense to armadillos. Secondly, rats while not as big as dogs or cats are, especially compared to mice, huge. Their teeth are stronger than steal. They squeak. They his (sic). They kind-of make a growling sound sometimes. ...

Bedwetting Kids Are Rewarded With Sleepover Parties

FAIR is concerned whether the pendulum has swung too far. That's my concern as well.

I think it may have and NPR needs to do a better job in general and especially in an election year -- to make sure that the range is both wide and deep.

You know what love is? Love is TiVoing the penultimate American Fargin’ Idol for your wife instead of the season finale of “Enterprise.”

You know living death is? Living death is TiVoing a show and then watching its commercials.

1. “Peace is Patriotic”

Not if your country is currently being attacked, you stupid hippy

Putting the "Con" In Conservative
BUSH HATE: B
CHENEY HATE: B+
HALLIBURTON HATE: A+++
This little eructation tells the world that conservatives are, ab ova, by their very nature, criminal. It underscores the central belief of those that have little money that those who have more must be bad, and that those who have a lot must be really evil, unless you get it when your wealthy husband dies or you marry a woman whose wealthy husband has died. Then you are a visionary and would never, ever, try to con the electorate about your voting record, your medals, your botox abuse....

Of course, we heard the first version was just "Let America be France." Whatever. They both boil down to the same thing: "Let John Kerry be a Massachusetts senator again."

Terrorists are people too.

1. Instapundit says Hugh Hewitt slandered James Lileks' dog on national radio.

2. Lileks threatens revenge: specifically, "the nuclear option."

3. Hewitt, apparently cowed, (and taking advantage of the fact that Lileks doesn't have first-hand knowledge of the misbehavior) claims the dog dissing report was a misinterpretation. Then goes on to re-label the Elder "Peeps," a moniker the Elder has expressly disavowed and admits makes him turn "ashen faced."

4. No blogresponse from Lileks or the Elder. But the Northern Alliance Radio Network (of which both are members) is apparently busy preparing for next Tuesday's Hugh Hewitt show of which they will have complete control (Mystery Science Theater 3000 notable Michael J Nelson will be a guest--but Lileks cunningly coopted him this week over lunch at Jasperwood).

Contact Sports for the School Bus

[I]s the Oil-for-Food scandal characteristic of the UN, or not? Is the Abu Ghraib scandal characteristic of the US Armed Forces, or not?

Which body acted swiftly to investigate? Which body opened itself to public hearings and condemnations? Which body put the bad guy in the dock, held a trial, and pronounced sentence?

Starving Children in China Would Spit Out That Broccoli

Shortly after mating, the male usually keels over and dies. The female buzzes off to excavate nests in a young twig for her 600 or so eggs. Once her egg supply is exhausted, the female dies.

In 27 years as a veterinarian, Dr. Janet Roshar has seen a lot of strays.

But when a good Samaritan brought a stray Boston terrier into her Orono animal hospital one day last week, what Roshar saw made her burst into tears.

"They don't want to hear about how Doug Blevins and Adam Vinatieri kicked field goals in the snow," Blevins said. "They wanted to hear about how Doug Blevins cried himself to sleep in Abingdon, Virginia, because no one would ever give him a chance. But it never happened that way."

And he also needs to fire Rumsfeld, says Friedman. Immediately, today, before he finishes writing the next sentence. And then he needs to flagellate himself and sing a chorus of "Mammy." And then, just maybe, slice his head open with a sword in one of those Shiite grief rituals. Why, you ask? Because of what happened at Abu Ghraib.

Friedman would have us believe there are teeming multitudes out there who want to like us, are trying to like us, but just can't get a leg over because we keep doing awful things to break their hearts. Luckily, they're so open-minded and forgiving that we might be able to win them back if we put the Friedman plan into action and have Bush give Hosni Mubarak a rim job. Which, of course, is horseshit. If anti-Americanism is as rational and fact-intensive as Friedman implies, why does it seem to be flourishing in places notorious for their violent, irrational prejudices? France is Europe's most anti-American country; to hear people who live there tell it, it's also on the verge of some kind of Nazi renaissance. What would Friedman's shame orgy accomplish in the minds of people like that except maybe give Le Monde's douchebag cartoonist the chance to draw Bush weeping tears that look like little oil barrels or something?

If I were a publisher with a sneaky, underhanded streak I'd find a writer in my community -- or maybe in my newsroom -- who has a distinctive voice and a feel for blog writing, and hire this writer to create a blog devoted solely to attacking my newspaper on behalf of its readers. Ideally the blogger would be anonymous, with the identity known only to me.

I Sleep In The Garage!: On Being Prepared For When The New Baby Comes

1. The amount of sporting events and other live events will increase (because people would be more likely to watch them at the actual time of transmission than record them).

2. There will be fewer ads for fast food and credit cards on TV (93% of viewers who could skip them, did).

3. There will still be ads for beer. TIVO users seem to like them.

A half-dozen people have genuinely hurt the mission and endangered their fellow servicemen, and the brass needs to make sure the message goes out loud and clear to the world that this handful of soldiers are not representative of even a tiny percentage of the American military. The president publicly stated his disgust, but the military needs to resist the temptation to move on too quickly.