Good point about the call for action in Darfur:

But what's the clear categorical distinction between intervening in Iraq (which I think it's fair to say Clooney and many other Darfur hawks opposed) and this one? Why does it always seem like progressives support any intervention that clearly does not advance any American interests?

The first comment is pretty funny.

(Hattip: Instapundit)

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So Shell wants to build the largest gasoline refinery in the country:

Output would rise to 610,000 barrels per day, higher than the 557,000 barrels per day produced by the ExxonMobil facility in Baytown, Texas, the current biggest in the country.

"Pending necessary regulatory approvals, Motiva would expect to initiate final engineering later in 2006 and begin construction in 2007," said Shell, while underlining that a final decision to expand the facility had not been taken.

I'd say the climate is just right for that regulatory approval.

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Can somebody tell me why gas is so cheap in Wyoming?

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This is why I'll vote Libertarian in the next election:

Every American taxpayer would get a $100 rebate check to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.

Does anybody remember when Republicans talked about eliminating whole federal departments?

Of course, windfall taxes are just as stupid. How does taking money from Exxon and putting in the federal coffers help ease my pain at the gas pump? Many of today's politicians appear to be more concerned with being in power than doing the right thing for country.

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This sounds great:

The California Public Utilities Commission approved a plan on Thursday allowing providers of high-speed Internet services to test using electricity lines to deliver online access throughout the state."

We need some real broadband competition. I'm sick of paying $47 a month for high speed Internet from Comcast. I've heard (from subscribers, not just Comcast) that DSL isn't fast enough to truly be considered a competitor.

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So, they're finally going to make Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" into a film. Leading actors: Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart and Brad Pitt as John Galt. I'll go see it.

By the way, Who is John Galt?

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Instapundit makes a good point about the Tony Snow appointment:

I tend to think of stories like this as mostly insider stuff. But I remember reading in Liberty magazine, back when Clinton appointed Mike McCurry as Press Secretary, that it was going to turn around Clinton's fortunes with the press. And it kind of did. So who knows?

Yeah, that nails it.

I think we might be sitting in the low point of the Bush presidency. One day we may look back at Tony Snow's appointment as press secretary as the turning point. Maybe we all don't realize the damage meted by a lackluster press secretary. And haven't things just really sucked for Bush ever since Ari Fleischer left? I'm sure Scott McClellan is a good man, but I'm not so sure he was the right man for the job.

I predict a witty, quick-thinking press secretary who can charm the Washington press corps will do wonders for Bush's approval ratings. Time will tell.

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Interesting account of the premiere of United 93:

After the film's devastating final scene, the screen abruptly went dark and a cacophony of loud, uncontrollable sobs could be heard coming from the back of the theater, where many of the nearly 100 family members of 9/11 victims were seated.

Almost everyone -- including many family members -- approved of the film.

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You only read a paragraph like this once in a lifetime:

Employees were paddled with rival companies' yard signs as part of a contest that pitted sales teams against each other, according to court documents. The winners poked fun at the losers, throwing pies at them, feeding them baby food, making them wear diapers and swatting their buttocks.

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Here's my thesis. Please don't find any typos!

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Finally, a video collection of real-life Rube Goldberg machines separated by a catchy, Japanese jingle.

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Hard to say that Bush only surrounds himself with people who agree with him:

Snow called the president "something of an embarrassment," a leader who has "lost control of the federal budget," the architect of a "listless domestic policy" and a man who has "a habit of singing from the political correctness hymnal."

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Hard to say that Bush only surrounds himself with people who agree with him:

Snow called the president "something of an embarrassment," a leader who has "lost control of the federal budget," the architect of a "listless domestic policy" and a man who has "a habit of singing from the political correctness hymnal."

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This might be the biggest White House personnel upgrade in history:

Conservative pundit Tony Snow will be named White House press secretary, Republican officials said Tuesday night, in the latest move in President Bush's effort to remake his troubled White House.

I think Snow can think on his feet a little better than Scott McClellan.

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I believe I've heard this before, but it is encouraging:

President George W. Bush yesterday threatened to use the first veto of his five-year presidency if the Senate refuses to cut back spending in an emergency bill to fund the war in Iraq and rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina.

Apparently, he is aware of his Constitutional ability to veto. But, I'm not sure Bush -- or Congress -- is aware of this part of the Constitution.

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Here's another fascinating report from Michael Yon in Afghanistan.

Great pictures of the opium crops -- which are apparently everywhere. The poppy flower is ironically beautiful.

It's a tough situation:

The Afghan farmers are only trying to grow a living. Their goal is not to make kids in Italy and Indiana into heroin addicts, but simply to scratch a life from the desert. When crops like wheat and corn are eschewed for poppy, the people who make the real dough will not be the farmers, but those higher up the profit chain who are willing to undertake the risk of a nefarious enterprise. So, much of the money flows into grimy hands. Not only that, but the people who deal in legal agricultural products are also damaged. No economy-of-scale benefits can be derived from products such as wheat when those products are relegated the minority market-share: In 2006, opium will bring more money into Afghanistan than all other revenues combined.

Take a look at the pictures of the real-life nomads. Oh, and the Afghan whip fight at the very bottom. Everyone loves a good whip fight.

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Here's a little pet peeve of mine from a Reuters article:

Bush's poll numbers have languished below 40 percent in the last couple of months, hit by growing public opposition to the Iraq war, his support for a now-abandoned plan for a Dubai firm to take over major U.S. port operations and American anger over gas prices now topping $3 a gallon at the pump.

I've been reading offhanded mention of this "growing public opposition to the Iraq war" for a few months now. So, I did a little checking.

Here's a report from the non-partisan Pew Research Center trust:

Overall public opinion about the war remains relatively stable. Roughly half of Americans (47%) believe the war was the right decision and the same number (47%) believes that the military effort is going very well (13%) or fairly well (34%). Attitudes on both of these measures have changed little since the start of the year.

This report came out four days ago.

So, where's this "growing public opposition" originating? From the journalists sitting around the Reuters news desk, perhaps.

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Now, I know this is no car bomb blowing up a market in Ramadi, but the news should warrant a little play in our media as well:

Four months after Iraq voted, the government's top posts were named by Parliament this weekend. The winners called for an end to sectarian divisions and a commitment to unity that has proved so elusive since Saddam Hussein fell.

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More pork:

Border security, gasoline prices and lawmakers' appetites for homestate projects promise to entangle an emergency Iraq-hurricane relief spending bill after it arrives on the Senate floor Tuesday.

The $106.5 billion bill has ballooned by almost $15 billion over President Bush's February request, and that figure could grow as senators of both parties press amendments to add money for border security and medical care for veterans.

Whatever happened to finding spending cuts to offset spending increases? Here are some good ones.

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It's not everyday that Instapundit quotes the New York Times masthead editorial:

It was only last month that the Senate staged a breast-beating debate about the need to control the rampant pork-spending abuse of earmarks — boondoggle appropriations tucked into vital legislation with little public scrutiny. Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, orated on the side of the angels in calling for reform. Well, the angels have lost another player. As the Senate returns from recess it will confront the year's prize porker blithely trotted out by Senator Lott — a $700 million earmark to relocate a Gulf Coast rail line, which was just rebuilt, post-Katrina, at a cost of $250 million. . . .

Even worse, Senator Lott and his fellow Mississippi Republican, Thad Cochran, are attaching this frivolous add-on to a bill that is supposed to be used to pay for emergencies — specifically the war in Iraq and hurricane reconstruction.

Senator Lott angrily resents any description of his pet project as a right of way to the slot machines. He insists the rail line needs higher ground and his constituents better protection. But it seems clear the twin traumas of Iraq and Katrina are being used as cover. Economic development is a fine goal for the Gulf Coast, but it deserves careful consideration, not a devious rush to the pork barrel.

Or that I agree with both of them.

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Sold this pair of shoes on eBay for $5.50. Now, I'm shipping them to Germany. Sometimes the Internet's a little too useful.

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Julio Franco should be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame:

Franco became the oldest player in major league history to hit a home run when he connected for a two-run, pinch-hit shot in the eighth inning Thursday night to help the New York Mets rally for a 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres. ... Franco already was the oldest player to hit a grand slam, a pinch-hit homer and have a multihomer game.

Of course, he'll have to retire first. Franco is 47. He says he wants to hit a homer when he's 50.

The heroes of Cooperstown are men who should be remembered for how they played the game. I don't see how we can let history forget Franco.

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No, ladies, he's not a doctor.

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Check out Instapundit's fantastic porkbuster roundup. He quotes this article from the Christian Science Monitor:

Remember Alaska's "bridge to nowhere"? It's about to be topped by what critics call Mississippi's "railroad to nowhere," which is quickly becoming the poster child for excessive spending by the Republican-controlled Congress.

The project, which was added to a $106.5 billion emergency defense spending bill in the Senate, would relocate a Gulf Coast rail line inland, to higher ground. Never mind that the hurricane-battered line was just repaired at a cost of at least $250 million. Or that at $700 million, the project championed by Mississippi's two US senators is being called the largest "earmark" ever.

At this point, I'm rooting for the GOP to lose power in the next election. I don't believe they can find their fiscally conservative roots in any other fashion. Unfortunately, I don't think they can realistically lose the Senate or the House. Certainly, not the latter since they've gerrymandered all the seats into incumbent strongholds -- a tactic once used exclusively by the Democrats.

On a similar note, Bush's poll numbers are at a new low -- 33 percent. Consider me one of the disappovers. If he'd veto one spending bill to try to instill some fiscal discipline on his party, I bet his numbers would shoot up 20 points. My opinion of him would certainly change for the better.

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The lightning on the way back from the YMCA made one of the kids bring up the story of Ben Franklin and his kite experiment. I decided to give a little history lesson.

I told the kids that Franklin helped found our country and his efforts in France convinced that country to aid our fight against the British. I then noted that Franklin was honored on the $100 bill.

I asked if they knew what other non-U.S. president was on a bill of the United States. Silence. (They're only 5 and 6.) So, I told them: Alexander Hamilton.

Who was he? Our first Secretary of the Treasury and the founder of the federal banking system.

And then I told them he was killed in a duel by our first vice president. They couldn't believe it. Neither could I. Had to check wikipedia. Yep, I was right.

Aaron Burr. The man who added a surreal air to our nation's early history.

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Earlier today, I successfully defended my thesis. Not sure if I truly achieved my goal, but the thesis was "approved without revisions," which I'm told is something of a rarity.

Here's the abstract:

This paper examines the legislative coverage of two issues as framed by two newspapers – The New York Times and The Washington Times. Using a content analysis, the researcher examines whether coverage favored or opposed pending legislation depending on the newspaper or the issue. The researcher found The New York Times framed welfare reform legislation negatively and campaign finance reform positively. The opposite was found in coverage from The Washington Times.

Given the response of the three professors on my committee, I'm definitely going to try to get it published in a peer-reviewed journal. I'll keep you informed.

I'll officially graduate with my M.A. in Journalism on May 13.

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Here's a photo I snapped the other day while attending an Easter egg hunt at the American Legion in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Note the ashtrays on every table. That's old school, baby. Old school.

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Great dispatch from Michael Yon on his earlier remarks about the debate of whether Iraq is in a state of "civil war." Here's the clincher:

These people, whether we call them freedom fighters, insurgents, thugs, or terrorists, have a stated mission to attack anyone who is not like them, wherever they can. They are not bluffing. They cannot be appeased. They will not stop if and when we leave, if we leave without completing the mission. If we leave, all vestiges of progress will be lost and those Iraqis who risked their lives to work with us to gain that progress will no longer trust Americans. If we run, the enemy will follow us. They will kill us. They will not stop until we stop them. I might be anti-war, but I am much more anti-terrorist. No more needs to be said on the subject of whether or not a portion of the violence in Iraq should be called a civil war, unless we want to argue about the definitions while the place explodes around us. There are more pressing issues than the limitations of our dictionaries.

It's a long post, but worth the read. He's very critical of both the Bush administration and the media's portrayal of military success.

A little something for everyone.

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Look at this shoe! What happened?

I've been wearing it since September 2005, although it looks like September 1998. Shouldn't a shoe last longer than nine months? (At least the other one is all right.)

It's made by Bass Shoes. I recommend avoiding Bass Shoes.

Sidenote: In a few hours, I'll be advertising Bass Shoes in my Google Ad box at right. The boys at Google haven't yet cracked the code on negative brand references.

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Any child of the 80s will instantly recognize these lyrics:

Kyrie Eleison
Down the road that I must travel
Kyrie Eleison
Through the darkness of the night
Kyrie Eleison
Where I'm going will you follow
Kyrie Eleison
On a highway in the light.

Ah, the sweet sound of Mr. Mister.

Now, I never understood what the words "Kyrie Eleison" meant. I figured it was some girl or something. Apparently no one has any idea. I asked everyone at the office and received a variety of answers. My wife insisted that the words were "carry a laser." (i.e., "I love you so much, I'd carry a laser for you." A songsmith, she's not.)

This morning -- after 21 years in the dark -- I finally found the answer while listening to a book-on-tape about meditation. (Yeah, I'm on a spiritual path.)

"Kyrie Eleison" is an ancient Greek Orthodox prayer. It means -- "Lord have mercy." You can read more about it in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

So, who knew? All of us 80s heathens singing along with Mr. Mister were walking around asking for divine forgiveness. And we didn't even know it.

I aim to inform.

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The founder of Greenpeace renounces his opposition to nuclear power. Interesting shift to see environmentalists embrace the source of power they once decried.

Yes, nuclear power would solve a lot of our country's energy woes. But, we'll probably need federal intervention (e.g., laws that usurp local authority) to get any new atomic power plants built. Nuclear plants are a great idea until they're built in your neck of the woods.

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Interesting read from the New York Times on the push for families to actually relax on the weekends.

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Interesting discussion about an Iran strike over at Powerline. Andrew Sullivan says Bush can't attack Iran because of his low approval ratings. But, Powerline's Paul Mirengoff argues that he'll do it because of the same low poll numbers.

I'd bet on the latter.

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I'm still reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It take me a long time to read a book.

It's got some of the best passages I've ever read. Like this one:

When he said it he did not raise his eyes from the first little fish of the day because he was putting in the rubies for the eyes. Only when he finished it and put it with the others in the pail did he begin to drink the soup. Then, very slowly, he ate the piece of meat roasted with onions, the white rice, and the slices of fried bananas all on the same plate together. His appetite did not change under either the best or the harshest of circumstances. After lunch he felt the drowsiness of inactivity. Because of a kind of scientific superstition he never worked, or read, or bathed, or made love until two hours of digestion had gone by, and it was such a deep-rooted belief that several times he held up military operations so as not to submit the troops to the risks of indigestion. So he lay down in the hammock, removing the wax from his ears with a penknife, and in a few minutes he was asleep. He dreamed that he was going into an empty house with white walls and that he was upset by the burden of being the first human being to enter it. In the dream he remembered that he had dreamed the same thing the night before and on many nights over the past years and he knew that the image would be erased from his memory when he awakened because that recurrent dream had the quality of not being remembered except within the dream itself. A moment later, indeed, when the barber knocked at the workshop door, Colonel Aureliano Buendía awoke with the impression that he had fallen asleep involuntarily for a few seconds and that he had not had time to dream anything.

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Another great post from Michael Yon. He's now in Afghanistan. It's not all heavy -- here's a funny account:

Two of the British soldiers joked about how the base received 200 cases of beer, and one of their mates got "pissed" (drunk) and went around banging on the doors of senior ranking soldiers. That was it. The order was given to ship all the remaining beer to a different base a couple hours away. When one of the British soldiers actually complied with the order and shipped all the beer, his direct superior could not believe that he actually shipped all the beer. "Yes," he said while sitting in his tent, "I told him to send all the beer, but I can't bloody believe he shipped all the beer!

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Here's a great post about a recent episode of "South Park" that deals with the Mohammad cartoon. Seems the "South Park" creators, Trey Parker and Matt stone, were making the point that it's really stupid to not show a picture of Mohammad just because of the threat of violence.

Unforunately, Comedy Central censored the picture of Mohammad because of the threat of violence.

It'd be funny, if not so sad.

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Check it out. If you search for "how to build sliding baskets," I'm No. 1 on Google. The clock is ticking on my 15 minutes.

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My prediction on oil appears to be slightly off the mark.

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Wikipedia informs me of the only church on Antartica.

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Here's an AP article on the apparent defeat of Berlusconi in Italy. The headline reads: "Bush appears to lose another Iraq war ally in Italy's Berlusconi."

What are the other allies? Spain and Portugal, we're told. Oh, and Blair's not doing very well in the United Kingdom.

What the author doesn't bother to tell us are these facts:

Blair won his election after the invasion of Iraq.
Japan's Koizumi won his vote after he sided with the U.S.
And Australia's Howard overwhelmingly won his election after sending troops into Iraq.

Now, I'm not saying that the loss Berlusconi isn't important to note.

But given the tenets of objective journalism, shouldn't these electoral victories have been mentioned?

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Here's a leftover from the dotcom bust. It's a Web site called ibreakup.net on which you can send an email to a girlfriend or boyfriend with whom you want to break up. We're told:

Because she's a psycho. Because she's annoying. Because you don't care to breakup in person. No matter what the reason,iBreakUp.net is there for you.

Can't understand why this site didn't make it. The last post on the "messageboard" was October 2000.

I wonder how much venture capital this site sucked down.

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The next time I harp about the media and Iraq, remind me of this:

Two of every three eligible soldiers continue to re-enlist, putting the Army, which has endured most of the fighting in Iraq, ahead of its annual goal.

USA Today, above the fold.

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Hey look, here's the rate card for Life Magazine. A full-page, color ad costs $325,000. Didn't realize the magazine was still so popular -- 12 million readers.

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The 'Star Wars Kid' has cut a deal with his tormentors. Here's the video, in case you somehow missed it.

Hey, how loudly can he complain? He got some cash ... and a wikipedia entry.

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I'm becoming increasingly nervous that Barry Bonds is going to actually break Hank Aaron's home run record. He hasn't hit a home run yet this year, but he's sitting at 708 -- just 53 shy of Aaron's mark. He seemingly can't miss the 714 needed to pass Babe Ruth.

If he does, it'll be a shame. Here's a link to a friend's great post that details the steroid abuses of Bonds and his corrupt teammates. I really don't think it's wrong to pray for an injury to Bonds so that Ruth and Aaron's records are unblemished. After all, those guys really did it.

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Georgia got hit pretty hard by storms as well. Here's a picture of my in-law's house. They'd just built that addition about 6 weeks ago. Luckily, they escaped unscathed. Apparently four tornadoes ripped through suburban Atlanta.

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Good post from Austin Bay on this Libby leak story.

The sudden press flap over Scooter Libby’s alleged "revelation" that President Bush declassified intelligence information related to Iraq is silly but all too predictable. The entire flap relies on mixing terms and "misunderstanding by innuendo" — a technique of demagoguery, not journalism. The flap is yet more evidence that the national press is more interested in playing "gotcha" with the Bush Administration than reporting the news.

Presidents and vice-presidents can declassify information based on their own good (or bad) judgment. That is a privilege and responsibility of the office. Their authority is near-absolute. Disseminating unclassified information isn’t a crime — no matter the technique used. The information can be disseminated at a press conference, in a press release, in a speech, or — yes– via leak.

That sounds about right.

By the way, who authorized the leaks about the intercepted Al Qaeda phone calls and the secret CIA jails? And where's the press outrage about those leaks?

Well you see, there's good leaks and there's bad leaks...

(Hattip: Instapundit.)

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Dan Drezner has a nice roundup of Iran talk. He thinks some in the Bush administration have already decided to strike. If we do before the elections, get ready for screams of "Wag the Dog."

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Novel way to get discovered:

LONDON, England -- A British singer has signed up by a major record label after broadcasting live performances from her living room on the Internet.

Sandi Thom, 24, is now on the books of RCA/SonyBMG after signing with the label at her flat on Monday night.

She built up a daily audience of more than 100,000 people around the world.

Here's her Web site.

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Hey man, I need a bio-engineered bladder.

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So, there's a movie coming out later this month about Flight 93. I don't know how long it'll take for me to want to watch a drama about Sept. 11, but it hasn't happened yet.

Here's an article about the hub-bub.

The film's directed by the guy who did "The Bourne Supremacy." That film sucked.

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Check out my weekend project. I figured I'd blog it and put some Google ads at the top. Maybe I'll get my $14 back ... in a couple of years.

It took about 90 seconds for a "drawer slide" ad to appear. Amazing.

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New post from Bad News Hughes.

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This is cool:

GE Energy Financial Services and renewable energy firms PowerLight and Catavento said Thursday they will build the world’s largest solar plant in Portugal, a sign that solar power is becoming mainstream.

Construction on the 11-megawatt plant will begin in May, and the plant will be completed—and generating power—in January, said PowerLight, the Berkeley, California-based solar-electric power systems integrator that will operate and maintain the plant.

What's cool is that this is being built by a private company, not with the help of some government subsidy. As technologies improve, we'll see more and more of these alternative energy projects.

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What does it say about our society that:

A) There's a web site that sells "fine handcrafted magic wands" for $35.
B) There are people who buy them.

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