I’ve got a few more posts up at Right Thinking as Hal_10000. I’ve been hitting Mahmoud pretty heavily this week.
While I’m posting, read this obit for the mime. I had no idea he was a Holocaust survivor.
More BS Research
In a study that brings back memories of the one that “proved” that a four-minute mile was impossible, a professor is claiming that steroids can increase homerun production 50-100%.
The such a study could be taken seriously beggers belief. Among other things, if such a benefit from steroids were real, home run rate would have exploded across the league and this is clearly not the case. The people who have tested positive for steroid use, including many pitchers, have not had anywhere near the power explosion this guy is guessing at.
(Although it clearly would depend on the type of hitter. You could add 4% to the speed of the balls I hit and they might just reach the outfield. Adding 4% to Barry Bonds is a different story, clearly.)
Y0K
It’s Yom Kippur tonight, so I’ll be observing radio silence on all my blogs. Having woken up late (sloth), publicly expressed both anger and lust, gone to a department meeting so I could feel like a big lasagna (vanity) and on the verge of gorging myself pre-fast (gluttony), I just need to work in some envy and avarice over dinner and I’ll be set for repentance.
Maybe I’ll stiff the waiter on the tip and covet the guy at the next table’s girlfriend.
Paey
Good news. He’s a free man.
Erggy
I knew from the trailers that Eragon would suck. The review confirmed it. But the hysterical and very very long recap at Agony Booth almost makes it worthwhile.
Wednesday Night Linkorama
Fat City
There is a growing body of evidence that the numbers being bruited about on obesity are garbage.
I happen to agree with Dean Edell. When it comes to health, people are focused on the wrong thing. Weight isn’t the issue. Inactivity, bad diet and poor lifestyle are the issues. A person who eats poorly and never excercises is unhealthy, even if their metabolism makes them skinny. And a person who eats well, lives right, gets plentiful sleep and exercise is healthy, even if their genes make them overweight.
Health is a personal thing. Applying some BMI statistic as though it were handed down on Sanai is anything but personal.
Minority Report
Why do the Republicans just ignore minorities? The stranglehold the Dems have over the non-white vote is their basic pillar of strength. Many of these pople might vote conservative if the GOP reached out to them. But every election, we hear “they won’t vote for us anyway so why bother”. But that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you refuse to address black audiences, or speak at black colleges or go on spanish-language television, it’s a massive slap in the face to the fastest growing segment of our population.
Reaching out to minority audiences is an investment in the political future of the Party. It may not pay off today, but it will sometime.
The GOP is quickly going down a rathole chasing the ever-shrinking homophobic white Christian vote. Given the demographic trends, this is nothing but a drawn-out suicide. It is a perfect emobidment of the “win today, screw the future” attitude the Party has taken under the “leadership” of W.
We can’t afford for the sane party to go down in flames like this. God, I wish we had elected McCain in 2000.
Nudity!
Apparently, the country is getting less puritan. The lack of reaction to the nude photos of superhot Vanessa Hudgens may be more indicative of celeb scandal fatigue than anything else (and that no one knew who Hudgens was before she appeared naked on the internet). But if we are developing a more natural attitude toward flesh, that’s a fantastic trend.
And death for the fundamentalist GOP.
Mistakes?
I’m not sure if this article, which alleges that many scientific results are actually mistakes, is referring specifically to medical studies or to all disciplines.
If the latter, I’m not surprised. Medical researches are always making ridiculous claims and are terrible at statistics.
AG
The latest attorney general nominee strikes me as a reason to hope. He’s not the rockhead lackey that The Little Legal Creep was, but seems a capable judge and attorney.
You have to wonder what goes on in the Bush mind. He follows up an excellent SCOTUS nomination (Roberts) with one of the worst nominations in history (Harriet Myers). He puts Gonzalez in charge at Justice and Brown in charge of FEMA, but taps Condi Rice and Colin Powell to head the State Department. His nominees are either great or terrible. WTF?!
The great news is that nominating someone like Mukasey indicate the Rice faction is winning the internecine White House war. I predict that they will call for the closure of Gitmo within six months.
And Mitt Romney will say he favored closing it all along.
MNF Improvement
Good God, is Ron Jaworski an upgrade over Joe Theisman. I caught the second half of MNF tonight and not only was Jaworksi brilliant, he made Terico and Kornheiser better. Last week’s three-Mike backup crew was pretty good, as well.
Last year, I couldn’t watch Monday Night Football. It was unbearably bad. This year, the improvement is massive. Fewer celebrity interviews (I think tonight’s was Charles Barkley and Barkley is a decent commentator in his own right), less of Dancing with the Stars, more emphasis on football and Jaws’ quick and brilliant breakdowns.
Awesome.
RTLC
Most of my political blogging will probably now be at Right-Thinking. Today’s post is another diatribe on ethanol.
Surreal
Did I just dream this? I’m innocently watching the Ohio State-Washington game and there’s a Wendy’s commercial about how they use fresh not frozen beef (yeah, right). The commerical has a Wendy’s employee going to the freezer and finding a guy with a red pigtail wig playing a didjeridu.
WTF?! Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop snorting airplane glue.