Probably the likely reason why I was nominated for “best non-liberal blog” last year was because of my position in the Terri Schiavo case, a position that, alas, has been reversed by the judicial killers in Tallahassee and now the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to intervene. Terri Schiavo, you will recall, fell into a semi-vegetative state (she can breathe on her own, but cannot swallow and hence needs a feeding tube, though she apparently is conscious a fair amount of the time) over a decade ago. Successfully contending that her condition was the result of a doctor’s medical malpractice, her...

Former presidential secretary to Richard Nixon Rose Mary Woods died at a nursing home in Ohio at 87. Woods was most famous for being allegedly responsible (at Tricky Dick’s direction, of course) for erasing around 18 1/2 minutes of presidential tapes during the Watergate scandal (which she always denied, contending she only erased 4 or 5 minutes’ worth!) Thanks to Hassan bar-Sinister for the heads-up (who also speculates- tasteless joke alert– that her doctors were unable to account for 18 or so minutes of Ms. Woods’ final hours…)

A CNN breaking news e-mail tells me that former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson died, at age 79, of complications from emphysema. As, IIRC, former Tonight Show hosts Jack Paar and Steve Allen have kicked off in the not too distant past, well, insomniacs of times past are losing some of their heroes. Time marches on. Here’s the thing (for those wondering just how I was going to make this about Bush): this is not atypical. Vaunted gains in American logevity have been a tad… illusory (we remain a dismal 42nd or something in world health measures such as longevity...

This week’s visit to our friends at Beijing’s People’s Daily will give us a number of snippets to try to piece together. First, this note that German Chancellor Schroeder promises to work toward lifting EU arms sanctions against China. Naturally, Schroeder also mentioned the EU’s commitment to the “one China policy”. Next, Chinese consumers are expected to buy over 5.8 million cars this year, virtually all of which, I think, will be produced in China itself. Which means that, naturally, Chinese demand for oil will remain quite high this year. Why would Beijing’s CPC House Organ feel the need to...

This week’s visit to Pravda gives us this interestingly mixed up story on the group of Chinese and Iraqis picked up in the Boston area on some kind of plot to detonate a “dirty bomb” in Boston. (It had been speculated to me that this was the “Mitt Romney for President Campaign Kick-Off Event”; fear, after all, seems to be the new political currency. We have nothing to fear except everything. While we’re dismantling everything else FDR ever did– why not his catchphrase too?) I don’t know what to make of the seemingly non-sequitur insertion that “astrologist Hassan Charni predicts...

It’s a winter wonderland here in Brooklyn, with around 4 or 5 inches shoveled off the sidewalk as of around 16:00 local time. As I was telling someone who lives in the outer suburbs, where he said the usual panic buying descended on all area supermarkets, people here in the Big City tend to be cooler about all this. I mean… cool. Over 2,000 other maniacs joined me at the start (and evidently, at the finish) of Central Park’s “Frostbite Seven” (that’s 7 miles). Just looking at the starting temperature (nine degrees Fahrenheit) makes me smile… thanks to a light...

The Snow Man, by Wallace Stevens One must have a mind of winter To regard the frist and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun and not to think Of any misery in the sound of the wind, In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land Full of the same wind That is blowing in the same bare place For the listener, who listens in the snow, And...

Ignoring my (rather intelligent and sound) advice, Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry were the only votes against Condolleezza Rice’s passing through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by a 16-2 margin. My regular readers are aware that my sentiments toward Dr. Rice are probably comparable only to my sentiments towards the President himself. Disdain would be putting it politely. Outright hatred (at a completely visceral and irrational level at that) would probably be more accurate. But that’s not the point. No matter. Senator Boxer gets a pass, here, and actually, she gets my admiration for tilting at windmills: everyone loves...

So sayeth our next Secretary of State, at her senate foreign relations committee lovefest confirmation hearing. We’ll train some Iraqis, and note that the Iraqis problems involve “getting along”, and then we’ll operate in the political interest of the President. “Doctor” Rice assured the Committee that she will be every bit the loyal yes-woman that she was as National Security Advisor, and we can rest assured, unlike that uppity Colin Powell, she will not rock any boats. She wants the Committee to know she serves the man and his interests– and the nation need not worry that its chief diplomat...

First, this link to Sy Hersh’s New Yorker article on the current Bush Administration plans for (literally) world domination, starting with Iran. It would appear that groundwork similar to the invasion of Iraq is now underway at the Pentagon and in the White House. The lessons the White House believes it has learned from the Iraq fiasco? Political. I wonder what that means: arresting protestors? A Pentagon spokesman (Larry DiRita) promptly disputes Sy Hersh’s conclusions. We will see. Hersh has yet to be wrong. The Pentagon has yet to be right. Draw your OWN conclusions.