Yup, after months of inexcusable shagginess, Ronan visited the salon yesterday. Underneath all the fur we were shocked to discover a terrier.

Ooh, ouch. This is not kind. But hey, Bush making out with a Saudi sheik, well, you knew it was coming, right? [THX: Norman T of the Cleveland Rocks! Desk.]

Noah Singman (nsingman) and I (and several others, as well) are bouncing back and forth on education funding in a comment thread on , which you can see in its entirety here. I wanted to drag a particular part of this discussion back to the top of the board, though, because I don’t want it to get buried. For those

Well, it’s official. Government’s Change in Calculating Need Will Deny Pell Grants to 81,000 Students, GAO Report Confirms The U.S. Education Department’s new way of determining a student’s need for financial aid will disqualify 81,000 students from receiving Pell Grants, the Government Accountability Office said in a report last week, a conclusion that confirmed earlier predictions by many higher-education lobbyists.

Well, things are looking bleak for Bolton backers everywhere (pick your source here), and at this stage there is no smart money being wagered on his confirmation to the post of UN Ambassador. The Dems are actually acting like an opposition party, key GOP senators are getting noticeably twitchy, and even Colin Powell, the most faithful party-line purse pup Dubya

[sigh] Shanahan still has no pass rush. He spends three picks on special teams and nickel-package DBs. Then he uses a 4th round pick on a back that nobody was likely to take before the 6th round. Look for the Broncs to miss the playoffs by a game this season. And then look for Pat Bowlen to sign Shanahan to

Okay, a little thought exercise for everybody. It goes like this. The 1st Amendment provides us all with a freedom to speak our minds that was, at the time of its composition, unheard of in human history. We Americans place a tremendous value on this ideology and (even when we misunderstand it, take it for granted, trample on it, etc.)

NASA has been taken to court in Russia over its plans to crack open a comet. Marina Bai, a Russian astrologist, filed a lawsuit last month with the Presnensky district court in Moscow, demanding that the U.S. space agency call off its $311 million Deep Impact mission. As reported in MosNews.com, Bai is also asking for 8.7 billion rubles ($311

I have a prediction regarding the future of the Church that I’m willing to offer up with some confidence. There has been a good bit of controversy about the issue of ordaining women as priests, and the College of Cardinals’ election of Pope B16 suggests we’re not going to see any rush to reform in this particular area. However, I

Dear lord. Qatar to Use Robots As Camel Riders … Spurring the robots’ development has been vehement condemnation from human rights groups of the sport’s regular jockeys. Activists say there are about 40,000 boy jockeys, some as young as 4, who are either bought from their parents or kidnapped from their home countries and taken to the Gulf to ride.

drenilop has some interesting thoughts on Pope B16 here.

German Doctrinal Overseer Ratzinger Elected Pope Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:56 PM ET VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, was elected Pope on Tuesday despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election. …. But he sounded very much the candidate before going

“You are in here for committing journalism,” he said. “If you have a pen, you might commit journalism again.” I’m trying hard to fight off the urge to make some snarky remark about how American reporters are less likely with each passing day to be charged with committing journalism. [THX: Paul Barrow of the Brit Expatriate Desk.]

Aaron Butler of the Indiana Law Desk suggested I investigate Fafblog. Three entries down I hit this: “As all bodhisattvas of the supply side understand, progressive income tax is an assault against entrepreneurship, taxing the wealthy at higher rates than the poor and therefore providing a disincentive to be rich. Indeed, we all remember the day Bill Gates and Warren