Were I a terrorist thinking about targeting the good people of India, I’d keep in mind that these seemingly placid subcontinental folk are responsible for giving the world yoga — which, were it not for the fact that your abs and glutes come away looking absolutely fabulous! would no doubt wind up on Andrew Sullivan’s short list of “torture” methods.
Instead, no pain, no gain! — and besides, it can’t really be torture if you come out looking ripped, right?
Though I guess one could make the case that waterboarding leaves you rather squeaky clean…
Anyway, the links. First, here’s AJ Strata on the Dem Congress and its latest attempts to neuter the NSA surveillance program, with an assist from the Washington Post.
Interestingly, if AJ is right about the nature of the warrant process instituted by the President after 911, a certain Brazil-based pundit will have written an entire book based around a faulty premise.
But under his real name, at least. So that part is a wash.
The fact that his premise was wrong, of course, won’t affect him much — he’s never been particularly trustworthy (so no loss of credibility will trouble his popularity as an ideological mouthpiece; Mona will see to that!), and he still gets paid no matter how wrong he was — but what it does mean is that his supporters shelled out some (partially subsidized) coin for a long-winded and self-serving collection of misinformed arguments about the shredding of the Constitution, etc.
Too bad. That money could have gone to help impoverished indentured servants living under racist oppression and government tyranny in that other America where John Edwards would be King.
Second, Tigerhawk notes that many sites on the left side of the blogosphere seem to be making hay of a NYT piece that suggests how Rudy Giuliani is receiving plenty of face time on FOX thanks to Roger Ailes.
Which is ironic, because the article is itself, as Tigerhawk writes in an email, “self-impeaching” (although not until the 34th paragraph — about 33+ paragraphs more than left wing blogs need to master the “gist” by way of “skimming”).
He also notes the disproportionate air-time being given to Dem candidates on all the other networks, and places that (foolishly, it seems to me) in the context of some on the left’s (and Trent Lott’s) desire to see a return of the Fairness Doctrine.
— Foolish, I say, because we all know that a return of the Fairness Doctrine would mean that only Fox and conservative talk radio would be scrutinized. For their part, NPR could run a story about a cross burning and claim it has given equal time to “conservatives, or Keith Olbermann will do a piece on testicular cancer and make the same argument — and an oversight committee stacked with Dems would likely side with them.
Third, while some Obama watchers are wondering if the clean one’s speech yesterday, in which he made overtures about invading a sovereign ally to hunt down Usama bin Laden, may have been his early “Sister Souljah” moment — and an attempt to show that he’s tough on terror — Steve Green wonders instead just what in the hell Obama was thinking.
Fourth, Kim du Toit notes the latest trend in elitist inbreeding. Which means I have to come up with a joke.
Two vegans walk into a bar. Bartender says, “what can I get for you?” First vegan says, “I’ll have a wheat grass juice.” Second vegan says, “Yum. That does sound good, doesn’t it? Make it two, my good man.”
At which point the bartender slaps them both across the face with a raw flank steak.
And finally, over at the spanking newish protein wisdom pub, River C discusses China, protectionism, and tariffs.
As Hollywood’s idea of a wealthy “Republican” businessman, Squier Burroughs (a cold man with a drunk, philandering wife and a strained relationship with his rebelling son, Skip) once noted: “You gotta have tariffs, son. How else you gonna compete with the damn foreigners?”
Funny how the roles have changed over the years, isn’t it?
That is, funny like a fox.
…will have written an entire book based around a faulty premise. Jeff G.
This is the leftwing intelligencia’s entire bibliography. Isn’t it?
Jeff, children aren’t taught to read for content anymore, the Whole Language method says we don’t actually read the words.
Kenneth Goodman
emphasis mine.
All you have to do is find the Truthiness ™ and jump to a conclusion.
Our (IL) junior Senator may have been at it again – loath as I am to quote something from Drudge, this is posted:
“Obama said Thursday he would not use nuclear weapons ‘in any circumstance’… ‘I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance,’ Obama said, with a pause, ‘involving civilians’ Then he quickly added, ‘Let me scratch that’…”
Yeah, now that is what I am looking for in my next CinC!
Enjoyed Kim du Toit’s recreational slamming on Vegans.. There aren’t many groups that so readily lend themselves to being the butt of jokes.. Anyway.. it made me think of an old buddy of mine that one day decided he was a Vegan and wouldn’t eat anything from an animal… Like many of those type people he couldn’t simply quietly eat his vegetables and be satisfied, he had to show everyone around that he was a Vegan and of course morally superior to them. One day we decided to stop for lunch and pulled into the neighborhood Burger King.. I of course ordered a Double Whopper with extra Mayo and grease, but when it was my Buddy’s turn to order he steps up to the counter with this really smug, holier-than -thou sneer on his face and says loudly “I’ll have the same thing except hold the mayo and hold the meat.” Without hesitation the teenager on the counter turns and yells ” One Double Whopper.. No mayo.. No meat..” They slapped a little lettuce, tomato and a squirt of Ketchup on a bare bun. wrapped it in paper and charged him $4.69 for it… I about split my carnivorous gut laughing….
tw: instinct ruined hahah.. not mine
Man, how the roles have changed, indeed. Of course, if minimum wage keeps getting driven up and people keep being convinced they’ll be able to live off of it in a now information/service centric industrial/commercial world, it is completely inevitable that the third world countries are going to kick our ass pound for pound in cost of basic manufacturing and processing. If apples are a cent each, a dollar a day isn’t bad. Sure, can’t buy a computer for that, but y’know…
Anyhow, if we tariff them, they might just do more biz with other people whom it costs less to ship to. Not like we’re the whole world. Boycotting/embargoing is not as simple as just willy-nilly stopping purchase. Sure, you can make a personal statement, but to have a real effect, you need to use some strategy.
One might counter with the embargo to Cuba being an example, to which I would respond, ‘Then embargo China!’ Whether or not we think it would be justified, we cannot do it right now. And in truth, tariffs wouldn’t abuse the third world any less – for the moralist among us – than lack thereof. If you feel dirty for buying their goods then expect to pay more or find a better source.
Most folks don’t want to pay more, and one might argue that our trade will raise their standard of living and eventually unseat and destroy their communist government. Sure, we have to deal with the bootleggers, but then again, it was us who decided it would be a good idea to open trade with them in the first case.
Of course, we could always relive the Great Depression. All that’s left is for the 2008 President-elect to freeze the banks for 100 days, and set the minimum wage! Oh, oops. Already got a minimum wage.
What can I say, I’m a heartless capitalist pig.
ccs: Ah, like the whole word method of reading, which assumes that because advanced readers can identify words by pattern, nobody ever really uses phonetics or needs phonetics to learn to read.
The result? A good friend of mine is labeled ‘dyslexic’ when in fact he cannot read words he does not already know from being told. A person who knows phonetics (or reading for content) can put the word together from phonetics to make the final pattern, after which it may be retained as a whole.
Not just illiterate, but double-illiterate! A brave new world, indeed.
Hey Jeff –
How is that P90X thing working out for you so far?
Major John – I feel for you in Illinois. Not only do you have the second coming representing you as the Junior Senator, the Senior Senator is one of the biggest lying crapweasels in Congress.
AmplifiedJ —
So far, so good. Today is 90 minutes of yoga, and then, after a “rest week” (which is not really a rest week, just more cardio than resistance training), we switch to phase two: heavier on the carbs, and with a new sequence to create muscle confusion.
The average workout I’d say burns, for me, around 700-950 calories (according to my heart rate monitor). During phases II and III I’ll be doing doubles, which adds additional cardio workouts 3 and then 5 times per week.
The only thing I’m having problems with is that I seem to need one more small meal than what they lay out in the meal plan. So if I don’t get the best results, it’ll be because I have a pint of Guinness and some lowfat cottage cheese (or a handful of unsalted cashews) a couple hours after dinner.
But I’ve noticed an improvement in both plyo and the ab ripper X workouts — as well as with the yoga. The others — resistance training — I’m used to, coming from a weightlifting regimen. They still leave me sore, though — and they work kind of like circuit training, so they are more intense than what I’m used to.