From Wired News: Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second. The discovery—which involves an analysis of variations in the brightness of microwave radiation—is the first direct evidence

     “Well, from now on, have your ‘morning sickness’ on your own time and make sure my bagel is properly toasted and spread with cream cheese and chives.  And while we’re at it—no shoes while you’re in my kitchen.  I have my reputation to consider. “Oh—and for Chrissakes, put on some makeup, would you?  You look pale as a canned pea.”

     “Honey?  Can you do me a favor and unchain me another homo from the basement?  I have a new pellet gun I want to test out.  Plus, I’d like his opinion on this tie.  I’m worried it might be a bit too busy.”

From ABC News: Iraqi documents collected by U.S. intelligence during the Iraq war and released by the Bush administration show Saddam Hussein’s regime was investigating “rumors” that 3,000 Iraqis and Saudis had traveled unofficially to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks to fight U.S. troops. The documents, the first of thousands expected to be declassified over the next several months, were released late Wednesday via a Pentagon Web site at

In an informative John Fund WSJ piece about the temporary suspension of Yale’s assistant director of annual giving, Alexis Surovov—who blasted critics of Yale’s decision to admit a former Taliban spokesman with a fourth grade education to one of the Ivy League’s most prestigious schools (as opposed to, say, vociferously condemning him for representing a regime that stoned women and dropped walls on gays)—emailer Terry Hastings excerpts the following bit,

Via Watching America, an op-ed from a Kuwaiti Arab-language newspaper.  Most likely a CIA or Mossad plant, but just in case, let me quote some of it: “Osama bin Laden never forced anyone to go to Iraq, kill its people and destroy its infrastructure. He has forced no one to kill innocent people in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, America and Europe. Bin Laden didn’t tell European Muslims hate the countries that

…to one of the most consistently interesting, witty, erudite, and well-written blogs on the web, Gail Hapke’s Scribal Terror.  More of a close-knit online community than a traditional blog—and delightfully devoid of the kind of partisan sniping so rampant everywhere else in the “political” blogosphere.  But that’s probably because Gail mixes her few measured political posts with stories on Corned Beef Dispensation and commentary on academic studies—which I understand is

—– Original Message —– From: To:  Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2006 12:50 PM Subject: protein wisdom Hey, could you stop making the rest of us jews look like idiots.  Change your last name please. Well, that’s a thought.  But I have a better idea:  howsabout you just glue on a bit of the foreskin you snip off the next transient you blow, then try to blend. Oh.  And congrats on

Via Joe at urbanfarmhouse, some news out of Iraq that simply can’t be honest.  Why?  Because we’ve lost the war—as everyone who is honest already knows—so any good news is by its very nature a lie. But as a notorious Kultist running a site for blinkered true believers, I continue to provide you, my fearful, deluded, irrational minions, with straws at which to grasp.  You can thank me later.

In his latest effort to turn blog excerpts from those he disagrees with into part of some master narrative he’s confident will be picked up by the anti-war, anti-Bush flock and spread like truly patriotic bird flu (dissentbeingthehighestformofblahblahblah…), Glenn Greenwald plucks a few crumbs from this post of mine and runs with it—original context be damned! (2) In a post condemning Feingold’s censure resolution, Jeff Goldstein predicts that the U.S.