Dr. Jim Booth – aka sirpaulsbuddy – thinks I may be off in my earlier suggestion that the Dems need to get themselves a Machiavelli. In his view, what is called for is instead a Robespierre, an uncompromising flamethrower of civic virtue. Maybe. Perhaps it depends on how much credit you give the public. I’ve been cynical of late (and

[Thx to Cody Barstow of Mojo City News for pointing this out.] NY Times: 10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills Had Industry Ties Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs’ makers, according to disclosures in medical

Nicked from the letters section at Romenesko: From JEROME WEEKS, Dallas Morning News: Given the recent back-and-forth in these letters about insider access and political manipulation — including William E. Jackson, Jr’s posting about the Judith Miller/Ahmad Chalabi resurrection — interested reporters should pick up the March 10 issue of The New York Review of Books — for the letters

Son says Hunter Thompson may have just decided it was time He considers his father “a patriot in the truest sense of the word,” someone who believed deeply in civil rights and democracy but was appalled by the nation’s failure to live up to its ideals. “Part of the power of his writing is his disgust with the gap between

Disclaimer: I was a huge Charlotte Hornets fan and Shinn & Woolridge can go directly to hell. That said, I’m having a hell of a time trying to figure out what these morons are trying to accomplish here at the trade deadline. Baron Davis for Dale Davis and Speedy Claxton? Ummm, okay. Glenn Robinson? I guess that’s a money move,

I’ve held my tongue on this NHL debacle, but now that the corpse of the 2004-2005 season has finally stopped sitting up in the coffin to insist that it’s still alive, I wanted to offer a couple comments. First, I’m not sure I’ll lose any sleep over the players and owners and all the money they’re flushing. There’s plenty of

samuel is the #60 most common male name. 0.306% of men in the US are named samuel. Around 374,850 US men are named samuel! source namestatistics.com smith is the #1 most common last name. 1.006% of last names in the US are smith. Around 2,515,000 US last names are smith! source namestatistics.com

The Giants just announced that Barry Bonds won’t be wearing his old #25 anymore, and posted a picture of his new jersey on their Web site. Here’s a preview:

Hell, yes – sirpaulsbuddy lands a well-deserved boot to the nards here….

Interesting SF Gate interview today with Jim Wallis on “Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.” Jim Wallis, a left-wing evangelical Christian who believes Democrats need to affirm the role of faith in shaping public policy…argues that conservative Republicans have taken control of the discussion about religion and morality in this country and have used

Nicholas Kristof’s piece today on the genocide in Darfur is just harrowing. Pictures really do have an impact that words don’t, you know? But, at the risk of seeming unduly cynical – does Sudan have oil? [THX to Brian Angliss of Daedalnexus for passing this along.]

You’re going to love this. We know that the government can condemn your property and claim it “for public use, in exchange for payment of fair market value” (more). But now there’s a case coming before the Supreme Court that would, if some real estate weasels and the New London, CT local officials who appear to work for them win,

Look what I just learned how to do!

Long-time co-conspirator Ralph Steadman has a nice piece remembering Hunter in The Independent online edition today. He was in a hurry. “Drive your stake into a darkened heart in a red Mercedes-Benz. The blackness hides a speeding tramp. The savage breast pretends. But never mind the nights, my love, because they never really happened anyway.” Read the story…

myths_americana has a nice brief on Thompson, too.