Wombat Rampant

New hope for the Ryugong?

Renegade parents and teachers fight back against "fuzzy math". Good on 'em, I say. (Joanne Jacobs) Also via Joanne, the WSJ says a college degree isn't always a ticket to success. Big surprise there, eh, Loyal Readers?

New York Times caught with its nose up Obama's ass again. Wow, big surprise there. (Ace. along with just about everyone else in the world)

Coyote explains the Democrats' dilemma on drilling, and also has a post about why wind and solar alone aren't up to the job of replacing coal and oil. As if that weren't enough, he points us to (via John Scalzi's blog) a new Scalzi short story in the universe of Old Man's War and a new Charles Stross short that's sort of a sequel to the awesome Atrocity Archives. Both of these are up at the new tor.com site, which looks every bit as nice as Scalzi says it does.

Speaking of the Tor site, did you realize that there's a port of Civ for the Nintendo DS? Apparently it kinda sucks, though. Think I'll stick to Civ III on my desktop and laptop.

"It started out we just couldn't talk about his ears. Now we can't say anything about him." (Kate)

RCMP begins investigation of Canadian Human Rights Commission. Couldn't happen to a nicer gang of fascists. (Kate)

Saskatchewan becomes second province to elect senators. (Kate)

Colby Cosh points the finger at an obvious suspect in the recent deaths of forty cownose rays in Calgary.

Cobb throws down on the fuggheaded California Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage despite the voters and the Legislature saying "No" in rather emphatic terms. I predict that as with the late unlamented Chief Justice Bird, there's going to be some ex-Justices looking for work the next time elections roll around. I realize that as a Catholic my POV on this is already going to be "wrong" in some folks' minds, but even lawyers who have no problem with gay marriage are saying the California Supremes done screwed the pooch here. I think there's going to be gay marriage someday in some states, and maybe all of them, but the harder judges and lawyers keep trying to ram it through from the benches instead of doing the patient work of selling people on it one couple at a time, the longer it's going to take.

When Obama says "“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want…", what he really means is "Do as we say, not as we do." After all, some are more equal than others. (Instapundit)

Unfortunate resemblances, courtesy of Roger Kimball. (Instapundit)

Three hundred years of women from the Saatchi Gallery. I found the morphing occasionally disturbing, but overall it is definitely cool. (Protein Wisdom)

David Warren compares "Red Ken" Livingstone to Robert Mugabe, and provides an entertaining preview of what Boris Johnson's tenure as Lord Mayor of London could be like. (Kathy Shaidle)

Also, P.J. O'Rourke offers advice to this year's graduates in "Fairness, Idealism and Other Atrocities". (Kathy again)

Finally, Rachel Lucas trashes some dim woman's article in Men's Health about what guys do to screw up relationships. RTWT, especially the comments. (Kate)

Was supposed to go out to some resort presentation tonight but felt too tired and ooky to sit through two hours of PowerPoint slides and other sales tactics. Managed to get it rescheduled for Thursday. Doing the other half of my laundry tonight after running out of quarters last night. Going to bed early, but going to hammer out some comments for Stipple first.

Read the whole thing.
I agree that people like Buckley are fewer these days only because the so-called "great universities" of America have turned their backs on the kind of classical education they once believed in; people with his command of the classics and the language now come to us from other venues. I think of David Drake, in particular; as much as I like Iowa, I would never rank its university with Harvard or Yale, but in these debased times, the chance of someone getting a solid grounding in the classics at Iowa is probably better than their chance of getting one at Harvard or Yale. Considering all the PC nonsense rampant in the Ivy League these days, yahmeen? (The Corner)

Unrelated: michaellee has a thoughtful post on day passes. Detour actually put the kibosh on day passes long before we ever dreamed of filling the T-Bird to bursting, but the rest of his points are well-taken.

Also, an interesting solution to the subprime mortgage mess and a worthwhile comparison of Michelle Obama to Lincoln.

Well, the hole in my upper lip has stopped oozing blood, but it's still swollen and there's a constant low hum of pain. This is both frustrating and enervating, and it looks like my only real option is to crash early & hope the whole thing heals up sooner rather than later. It hurts to talk, it hurts to eat, and I just want to be done with it.

In the meantime, what white people and black people like. (Cobb)

Related: Ten Rock Songs Black People Love and Ten Rap Songs White People Love. Thank God they left us Latinos out of this craziness. :3

Kate teaches Warren Kinsella what it is to be pwnz0r3d. Get a job and quit hanging out in the mens' room, Warren. That shit is played.

Looks like some of us on the right are finally getting around to reading Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and realizing how full of fail it is. Peg Kaplan points out the inevitable response from a young fellow who decided to see if he could work that scenario the other way. Both Mitch and Peg's posts are RTWT material.

It's the Jooooos! (Jawa Report)

Also courtesy of the Jawas, Ron Paul makes the Encyclopedia Dramatica. It couldn't happen to a nicer wackjob.

Why baseball writers can't be trusted with Hall of Fame ballots.
In a similar vein, veteran sportswriter bemoans lack of alcoholism and vomiting at the Winter Meetings.
Sid Hartman is just the tip of the iceberg, people.

" That’s how it used to be in the Soviet Union; nothing but delicious lobster, all the time, for everyone."
Yes, there are still Communists in Germany.
Fortunately, these days they're complete fucking morons. (Tim Blair)

Apparently the anti-WalMart folks have an English equivalent in Tesco-bashers. Julie Burchill isn't having any of that.

An article by Noemie Emery chronicles the Congressional Democrats' "surge against the surge", and Jeff Kouba cites it to correct a Susan Lenfestey claim in the Strib that "there was never any doubt that the surge would work". Of course not, Susan. But don't tell Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi. (Mitch Berg)

Elsewhere, Professor Death points to a Reuters article that indicates parasites may be a bigger health problem in America than previously thought. Makes sense to me; all those feral cats & dogs in the city don't scoop their own poop, after all.

Cobb has Ron Paul pegged as a loon (and draws the expected fire from RoPabots in comments), thinks blacks who keep whining about "the Southern Strategy" should put up or shut up, and has a cool Christmas family pic. Even if his Spousal Unit can't keep the hard face. :)

No mail run to Chantilly today; P is busy with other matters and since shooting has been rescheduled for tomorrow accordingly, there doesn't seem much point to running out there today. Besides, I still have a bunch of crap in my lungs, so staying home with my feet up sounds like a wiser choice anyway.

Saw this earlier in the week but couldn't fully appreciate it until I got Cowzilla's sound working again: Tom Wolfe speaks at Duke. Some very good tips for aspiring writers in here, even if one plans on writing SF or fantasy. (Ed Driscoll)

Ed also has an interesting essay in which he traces the radical decline in moviegoing to Jack Valenti's scrapping of the Production Code, and links to a WaPo review of a book on Joseph Breen and the Production Code Administration.

But wait! There's more! How about this steampunk LCD display? It's the kind of thing your great-grandma's Differential Engine might have sported! :)

...from the Eastern Bloc.
Cool stuff. (Instapundit)

Diana Ross & the Supremes provide background music for this clip...a sort of "long-distance dedication", if you will.
(Theo Spark)

Meanwhile Jules Crittenden promotes Panties for Peace! Pollute the vital essence of Burma's benighted dictators by exposing them to the spiritual uncleanness of women's underwear! Personally, I think a few sorties of B-52Ds would have more of an impact, but it's not my call. American readers, send your panties here:
Embassy of the Union of Myanmar
2300 S Street NW
Washington D.C. 20008

In Venezuela, folks still know how to properly venerate pop icon and murderous Commie Che Guevara, despite all these years of "Bolivarian" bullshit. (Instapundit)

They laughed when Jon Katz sat down to write about sexbots, but they're not laughing at David Levy, who recently completed his Ph.D. dissertation on human-robot relationships and predicted legalization of human-robot marriages in Massachusetts later this century. (Rachel)

Apparently when I was venting my spleen on the IRS I forgot the parts of the application where they asked me if I had any experience doing 1) auditing, 2) financial reporting, or 3) [insert topic probably taught during a BA Accounting program], to all of which I answered, truthfully, no. Well, now we know who screwed up and where, and I have some more time in Purgatory to work off.

Tomorrow will for sure be the last day at the ad agency since the supervisor is leaving for AZ in the afternoon. Besides, I've had all the disorganization and chaos I can stand anyway. Yeah, free parking and pop are good, but working with Clients & Profits X is the suck. Don't even get me started on Excel for Mac. I want to find the bastard who decided the F2 key in that should work differently FROM EVERY F*CKING WINDOWS VERSION OF EXCEL SINCE 3.11, and beat them to death with a spiked baseball bat. Starting with the kneecaps.

At least dinner was good. Mom slow-cooked some pork with red chiles and it was GREAT. Tomorrow it'll be better since we'll have beans and rice and I won't feel guilty about leaving the sauce on my plate. :D

Went out and shot POS tonight with my fellow goons; used up lots of ammo and apparently helped put a POS into reinforced, which means it'll probably be dead by downtime. Some BoB and DR types sortied from their station but I was too slow and didn't get in on the kills. :(

Elsewhere on the Interbutts, deathquaker says it's probably a Good Thing Joss Whedon won't be doing the script for the new Wonder Woman movie. Cobb talks about selling out, Cosby, Poussaint and the debt we all owe our fathers, the new Racism Review blog, random yet interesting chatter, and what could be a new counterinsurgency paradigm. Finally, Colby Cosh reports on something new in sabermetrics by the man who coined the word.

Via GVDL, the extremely interesting House of Eratosthenes, especially notable for the Things I Know page.

Who the hell is Kathy Griffin and why should I care what she thinks? (GVDL)

I thought briefly about picking up another Z-pack last night at the Wal-mart but decided against it. My fever is pretty much gone, I'm sleeping longer at night, and I think my diaphragm is done conspiring against me. Not that I intend to return to my Falstaffian habits at the trencher by any means, mind you, but it will be nice to eat an entire plate of food without worrying that I'm going to hurl.

This is also cool. Unfortunately GVDL doesn't have permalinks on his "Edge Notes" section.

So after buying all those cold & flu meds yesterday, I decided to just rely on painkillers from here on out. Whatever's afflicting me, it's not clogging my sinuses, so the decongestants really aren't doing much for me. Got Valerie to bring up my laundry from the basement and eventually give her a lift to the grocery store, where she shopped for herself and Mom and managed to ring up a $97 tab. Oy.

I didn't get over to the hospital to visit my friend Richard today, but considering that I'm still struggling with the Swedish Death Flu that wasn't really a good idea anyway. We'll see if I feel well enough to go to the last Nationals game at RFK tomorrow.

Some local flavor; DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee talks about her job.

For the benefit of P and RS: some background on the Jena mess.
InstaPunk weighs in regarding the political angle, and Baldilocks comments.

You know, if McCain keeps doing stuff like this, he might change my mind. Might.

John Stossel speaks with my mouth when it comes to the health insurance mess.

I moved way too slowly this morning and didn't get anywhere close to the Waldorf MVA office, although I did rediscover my navigation skills when I got way out on Accokeek Road and ran into a sign informing me that one of the local bridges I was headed for was closed to all but local traffic. Tomorrow morning I'm getting up earlier and not wasting time checking mail, reading webcomics, etc. Still not sure how I'm going to get new plates/title/license when I don't have hardly any documentation to prove I'm living in the ancestral digs, but I guess I'll manage somehow.

David Wong does it again.
Yes, the man who brought you the monkeysphere explains why you have hundreds of online friends and still can't find anyone to hang out with, why your job sucks, and why you suck. (Does not apply to everyone on my friends list, obviously.)(Kathy Shaidle)

Riot grrl-turned-orthodox Catholic Kathy Shaidle moved her blog. Same snark, new address. Particularly worth reading is her rant about the New Frumpiness among Catholics.

P and I went out for sushi, and in the course of it she ordered some really great sake. On being offered a taste, I stuck the very tip of my tongue into the Everclear-like fluid and agreed that the taste was indeed extremely delicate and possibly even nonexistent. That taste was a mistake. I don't know if it's because of the Claritin softab I did right before dinner -which banished my allergy symptoms, but may have sensitized me somehow- or because the diabetes meds were just taking up too much of my liver's processing capacity, but I was pretty seriously ripped by the time we left the restaurant*.

The ads in Target were more proof that ad copy writers are all hopelessly alienated from the English language, and possibly addicted to soft-core CP as well. What kind of person names a line of clothes for pre-teen girls "Libertine"? Augh, disgusting. Truly, as Inigo Montoya once said to the Sicilian, "That word...I do not think it means what you think it means." I say send the Party Van after them and let them explain it to the Authorities.

Anyway, P was convinced that I shouldn't drive home until I chilled for a while, which I did, reading a pretty good social history of railroads in America to kill time.

Not quite as weird as accidental drunkenness from nanodrinking, but still out there: Joel Garreau interviews William Gibson. (Instapundit)

Madeleine L'Engle is dead. I wonder how many kids got turned on to SF by A Wrinkle In Time? I know it's the first book I remember reading that was definitely SF. (Instapundit)

onsenmark's father is really sick and may be dying. Pray for him and the late Ms. L'Engle.

*Yes, this officially makes me the CHEAPEST DATE EVAR.

Got a reply already from one of the people advertising for roomies on rent.com, and I'm going to take a look at the place tomorrow. It's $550/month with all utilities included (including the all-important Internets), and unless one of the people advertising a room for $400-$500 pipes up with a better offer (or something goes horribly wrong tomorrow) I'm going to close this deal and start moving my stuff on Monday. We'll see what happens.

Otherwise, it's a pretty dull day. Took P to Union Station, which she'd never seen before; she was appropriately awed by the size and grandeur of the place (now that it's been cleaned up) and then headed out to Newington to get my timecard signed. That taken care of, I returned to the hotel and chilled, eventually devouring a couple of turkey sandwiches and a Cup Noodles Souper Meal (con sabor de pollo!) for lunch while browsing through Instapundit and some other blogs. Some articles of note:

Cafe Hayek wonders amusedly how the BLS will account for the rapid improvements in the iPod.

Tyler Cowen's had enough of your whining! Shut up about your iPhone already!

Don Luskin fisks Jonathan Chait's abysmally stupid TNR attack on supply-side economics. Yeah, I know, fish, barrel, etc. Further down, he looks at Orson Scott Card's support of new urbanism and includes a comment from a reader who points out that it's not working where it's already been tried, mostly thanks to zoning restrictions that choke off businesses.

Finally, if you didn't like my post about Priuses, you're not going to like this article about carbon offsets much better. That's right! Your eco-indulgences increase misery and poverty in the Third World! No wonder there's a lot of Brazilians and Indians pissed off at us.

Chillaxation accomplished! I can now has restful sleep, and a tour of the Museum in the morning.

Before I assemble my nose hose, set the alarm, and turn in, though, behold these items of interest found at Rachel's blog:

Arthur Miller "the great American moralist"? Don't make me laugh.

The History Channel is hella popular and military history books sell like hotcakes. So where are all the military history college courses? Victor Davis Hanson has part of the answer; Bruce Bawer has the other part.

Geoffrey Chaucer? He can hath cheezburger too.

Finally, on the off chance that he's taking a break from his PC to do something other than eat, sleep, excrete and strengthen the marriage bond: Yo, stuckintraffik, how's that Bioshock working out for you?

I'd laugh, but this isn't funny. Isn't it time to put NASA down like a senile coon dog yet?

No humour please, we're Canadian liberals. Punch line for those of you in a hurry:

That's right. She wrote two full paragraphs referencing global warming and evolution to critique a post designed to draw attention to the falling values of newspaper stocks.

Indeed.

Been spending the day hanging out in my room, playing Civ 3 and reading Tom Wolfe's Hooking Up. There's a lot of food for thought in there, but there usually is with Wolfe. I can't help wondering whether there's anyone else looking at American society with the same detached amusement and painstaking eye for detail when it comes to our foibles and follies. Anyway, I plan to do a whole lot of nothing this evening. There'll be time enough tomorrow for running around and removing still more things from the apartment.

Krupp's Bagger 288
More epic German mining equipment.
Russian mining industry represent!

Picture sort of related: what happens when the cute chicks no longer dig robots. (Dark Roasted Blend)