From the Weekly Standard‘s “Scrapbook,” May 31, presented without commentary: Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings recently published a guest column in the Charleston Post and Courier in which he complained that the true purpose of President Bush’s Iraq policy was to “secure Israel” and “take the Jewish vote from the Democrats.” Various people are rather upset with Hollings as a consequence; Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham H. Foxman says the senator’s

and I don’t care.

A new charity idea: send a fiscally moronic leftist this easy to digest economics primer, written by Dale Franks (The Review, QandO, TCS) and offered for sale through Barnes and Noble. Alternate idea: if you don’t know any lefties deserving of such individual largesse, buy a copy and donate it to your local Starbucks. I’m quite serious about this. We’ll all be better off in the long run.

Michele at A Small Victory received an email from the Committee on Arrangements from the RNC alerting her that [certain select] bloggers will receive credentials to all four days of the Republican Convention in NY, Aug 30-Sept 2; Jeff at protein wisdom received no such email and as a result has decided to throw his considerable resources behind John Kerry — who, you’ll admit, is quite a handsome, well-spoken fellow.

I would prefer not to. *

Brillcreamed, rough-hewn, old school… And spanked like Carl Berstein “on assignment” in Bangkok.

Skinny guy with nose ring: “The great Green Mother is fighting back, man. She’s sending forth her winged minions to smite the land of the smirking, warmongering robberbarrons! It’s like, enviro-retribution or something. Long live the great Mother!” Fat guy with muffin: “Yeah, far out. Hey, do you have, like, eighty cents I can borrow…?”

Cirrus clouds. Whipped cream. Marshmallow kisses.

Well, there’s one less mule for Bill O’Reilly to flog… update: John Kerry released a statement in which he says blah blah blah me me me. The opportunistic europuffer. update 2: Bill Quick has some interesting thoughts on the resignation. I won’t steal his thunder, but I will say that Bill’s thoughtstew contains equal parts Chalabi and Rumsfeld (and of course potatoes, carrots, celery, and thyme).

Writing in The Weekly Standard, Andrew Ferguson takes a few well-directed pokes at the nanny state’s safety brigade, here represented by seatbelt zealots: More must always be done. We must always be made safer, if not freer, and the law of unintended consequences must always be blithely dismissed. The last great project of the safety mobilizers, you’ll recall, was to make air bags mandatory in passenger cars. This was saluted