…to the whole Wally Hettle / Paul Deignan dustup. A few things, for the record: 1.  I don’t hold Bitch PhD responsible in any way for the comments made by Wally Hettle.  I also don’t think Paul should be trying to out her identity.  My beef has always been with Hettle’s actions, which its seems to me were an egregious misuse of his position.  In the comments on this site

From the AP : Police arrested 17 terror suspects in Australia’s two biggest cities Tuesday in raids authorities said foiled a plot to carry out a catastrophic terror attack. A radical Muslim cleric known for praising Osama bin Laden was charged with masterminding the plot. More than 500 police backed up by helicopters were involved in raids across Sydney and Melbourne, arresting eight men in Sydney and nine in Melbourne

Here’s a liberal lawyer more interested in intellectual honestly than with framing Samuel Alito’s “controversial” opinions in such a way that those who would oppose Alito can pluck from them a few disingenuous talking points. Liberals who favor a particular judicial philosophy are not going to like Alito; this much is obvious, and it’s to be expected. But what they shouldn’t do is dissemble in their attempts to sink his

From Reuters: France will give local government officials the authority to impose curfews in areas hit by rioting to try to halt almost two weeks of unrest, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced on Monday. Villepin ruled out army intervention in an interview with France’s TF1 television but said the cabinet would meet on Tuesday to clear the way for government officials known as prefects to impose curfews. “Wherever

Interesting bit from Julian Sanchez in the December Reason: As market watchers puzzle over the the current housing boom, a recent study suggests government may be fueling price increases. In a paper to be published in the American Economic Review, two Harvard economists, Edward L. Glaeser and Raven E. Saks, and Joseph Gyourko, a professor of finance and real estate at the University of Pennsylvania, note that housing prices have

1.  Coming from an academic background, nothing steams my bean so much as a professor misusing his power to try to destroy the incipient career of a PhD student –an offense made even more egregious when such bullying is part of a campaign to punish said student for his political views. For those of you who haven’t been following the story as it makes its way around the blogosphere, Info-Theory’s

well-dressed gentlemen:  “So.  Can I buy you a drink?” hermaphrodite: “Wow. I was about to ask you the same thing!”

Best Buy is running a 2 for $20 special on House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects.  I haven’t seen either but was thinking about picking these up blind, knowing that Zombie is influenced by the 70s shock horror films of Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper (I count The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as one the greatest horror films ever; and The Hills Have Eyes is likewise brilliant in many

Patterico, “Overturning Roe with an Incrementalist Approach”: Judge Alito has been described in numerous reports as a cautious and conservative jurist, respectful of precedent and deferential to government. What does this signify for the prospects that he might be a vote against Roe v. Wade? It’s tough to say. Judge Alito’s conservative record strongly suggests that he would be unwilling to read new rights into the Constitution. But his cautiousness

Not sure of an exact date, but I seem to remember Jamie Lee Curtis and a thick, stiff mullet.  Though I suppose I could just be confusing him with Travolta in Perfect. Developing…