I'm hurt

Happy Birthday, America!

Ogged - where's the love? I hope a sparkler singes off one of your eyebrows.

Festivities

People have begun to descend upon Chez Ogged for the weekend so I won't be able to blog until Monday. I know better than to ask Unf to take up the slack, so check out the sites in the blogroll and also drop by the excellent sites of Catarina Fake and Michael Bowen, and don't forget the oddly fascinating New York Social Diary.

The Irish Sure Can Write

Kieran Healy has written a post consisting of nothing but blogging cliches. Needless to say, as a blogger, I'm not the least bit amused, nor am I going over my own posts to see how many of those cliches I've used. Be sure to avoid Kieran's post. Thanks.

Your Own Mind

I'm not going to comment on this. Think of it as a political Rorschach test and read on. This is part of (recorded) comments by David Rubenstein, the co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group (an extremely well-connected and somewhat secretive firm).

...when we were putting the board together, somebody [Fred Malek] came to me and said, look there is a guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on his luck a bit. Needs a job. Needs a board position. Needs some board positions. Could you put him on the board? Pay him a salary and he'll be a good board member and be a loyal vote for the management and so forth.

I said well we're not usually in that business. But okay, let me meet the guy. I met the guy. I said I don't think he adds that much value. We'll put him on the board because - you know - we'll do a favor for this guy; he's done a favor for us.

We put him on the board and [he] spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.

He said, well I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.

And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again. His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category. So you never know. Anyway, I haven't been invited to the White House for any things.

(via this page)

Found

Cool! Found Magazine collects notes and pictures that people have, appropriately, found. Some are really quite evocative. A couple of my favorites are here and here.

via Eve Tushnet

The Eye

I've been wanting to link to this post about Eric Rudolph for a while. Now that the permalinks are working, check it out. I know it seems like a joke, but Doug is so right about that second picture.

More from the Language Police

I'm watching the word "risible" become a hoity synonym for "laughable." In the process, we're losing the really useful definition of the word: capable of laughter. And because every story needs a villian, I blame the otherwise great Josh Marshall. Come on Josh, you know what makes so many of the people you cover laughable is the fact that they're not risible.

Capitalism

My mother, who teaches little ones, read them the story of the tortoise and the hare today. (You'll recall at one point the tortoise overtakes the napping hare.) She asked them the moral of the story. I suppose it should have been obvious.

We should never sleep.

Not What it Looks Like

You probably already know that Strom Thurmond had a black daughter. This is one of the fullest treatments I've read.

You Hosers

Happy Birthday, America, Jr.

I know that I'll be having a Labatt's Blue later to celebrate. What's everyone else doing?

The Buzz

It's mosquito week at the New York Times. In addition to yesterday's letter from the born-again mosquito lover, today's Science Times has one article on avoiding bites (sticks?), and another, much more interesting article on the perplexing itch/scratch reflex.

And if itch is a mystery, scratch is even more so.

In its basic, most primitive form, scratching is a reflex that is controlled by the spinal cord and requires no input from the brain. Experimental animals whose spinal cords have been severed from their brains still have a scratch reflex.

And be sure to check out the cool graphics.

My Flesh

As a light sleeper who has lost many a precious hour to that godawful buzz, to this gentle soul I can only say, fuck the swallows.

Who?

Anyone care to mount a defense of our President for this one? (via Brad DeLong)

Meeting last month at a sweltering U.S. base outside Doha, Qatar, with his top Iraq commanders, President Bush skipped quickly past the niceties and went straight to his chief political obsession: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Turning to his Baghdad proconsul, Paul Bremer, Bush asked, "Are you in charge of finding WMD?" Bremer said no, he was not. Bush then put the same question to his military commander, General Tommy Franks. But Franks said it wasn't his job either. A little exasperated, Bush asked, So who is in charge of finding WMD? After aides conferred for a moment, someone volunteered the name of Stephen Cambone, a little-known deputy to Donald Rumsfeld, back in Washington. Pause. "Who?" Bush asked.

Duck

Oh my. Unf has been having his own psychodrama regarding Liz Phair's latest CD. But that's nothing compared to what must be happening in the fair Ms. Phair's own head. Meghan O'Rourke trashed the CD in the NY Times. Liz Phair really didn't like that. (via, who else, the Snarky Maroon, Ana Marie Cox).

All Apologies

I have to admit, this cracked me up.

S-P-A-M

Can I get a witness from the blogger nation? Back on the 18th, I wrote about Microsoft's stealthy efforts to scuttle anti-spam legislation. Lo, these eleven days later, the Washington Times takes up the story, and even uses the same source and quote I got. Where are the blogger triumphalists when I need them?