Granted, it happened in 1957, but it is another example of how John McCain’s experience towers over that of his Democratic rivals, demonstrating an ability to develop close bilateral relationships abroad.  We never hear about Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton having this type of experience south of the border, though the American electorate hungers for such stories.  Where is the crack investigative staff of the New York Times when we need it?

but I don’t think I’d be cruising any Sex and Sensibility parties, ever were I single. Melissa Clouthier on PC Beauty Contests (or Little Miss Sunshine Comes to the Small Screen)

TPM’s Josh Marshall is baffled by the racial voting patterns in the Democratic presidential campaign: In so many words, perhaps the pattern is that Obama does well in states with large black populations (at least in terms of primaries) and states with very small black populations. The problem is in states with substantial but not particularly large African-American populations in which you have a deep-seated and pre-existing racial politics that

In a solar tsunami, a huge explosion near the Sun, such as a coronal mass ejection or flare, causes a pressure pulse to propagate outwards in a circular pattern. Last year’s solar tsunami, which took place on 19 May 2007, lasted for about 35 minutes, reaching peak speeds about 20 minutes after the initial blast. Co-author David Long, from Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland, commented: “The energy released in these

Hamsher poufs Gleen(s)'(s) new book, and extracts this pearl of mythbusting: Myth: The Republican nominee is an upstanding, regular guy who shares the values of the common man. Reality: He divorced his first wife in order to marry a young multimillionaire heiress whose family then funded his political career. Gosh. I can’t recall what Gleen(s) was saying about John Kerry’s record, this way. Can you? ALTantrum!!!

Glenn Reynolds wonders whether one ought to consider purchasing treadmills, stair climbers and such from Amazon, pointing out that it would be a total hassle to return something of the sort if it were necessary. Well, first, I’d like to say that he ought to try the stuff personally before buying there, at whatever local places sell the stuff.  But secondly, and more importantly–why would anyone want to pay retail

“Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.”  –Preface to The Picture of Dorian Grey  That is why you should consider Tuscan Milk. (h/t Enoch_Root)

“Feminist hero” being in quotes because the woman in question is Heidi Montag, of MTV’s pseudo-improvised reality series The Hills.  Montag tells US magazine that she is voting for Johnny Mac.  TIME magazine’s Ana Marie Cox (who else?) gets the reaction from Maverick himself. Knowing that the PW crowd is near-fusty in its strait-lacedness, I point you to pictures of the feminist in question for those of you unfamiliar with

Stabbin’.  Ow.

The notion the McCain’s current “biography tour” is some form of race-baiting is so dumb that even Matt Stoller has admitted he was wrong about it (he is also wrong about the “history” he cites, but that’s a topic already addressed).  Yet Matthew Yglesias has been pushing the “soft” version of this idiocy at The Atlantic: Ed [Kilgore] notes the analogy to Bob Dole’s 1996 campaign, the last time the GOP