Bookworm Room

Tweet I’m reading and voting.  You don’t get to vote, but you do get to read all the good stuff from this week’s Watcher’s Council: Council Submissions The Noisy Room – Stalking the Blogosphere – BlogBurst Friday for Free Speech The Colossus of Rhodey – This Is Even Funnier Because Of Her Obstinance Simply Jews [...]

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Tweet You all saw that Mr. “I know Judaism better than the Jews” is now refusing to apologize for having referred to Polish, as opposed to Nazi, death camps.  What a maroon. I always tell my kids (usually after they’ve said “Moooom, you’re embarrassing me”) that a person can only embarrass himself.  President Obama is [...]

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Tweet The T/A Travel Center in Denton, Texas, learned that you don’t forget to fly the flag on Memorial Day.  (Go here for more about one veteran’s self-help approach to fixing that problem.)

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Tweet One of the hardest fought propositions on the California ballot this June is Proposition 29 which is described on the ballot as a new law that “imposes additional tax on cigarettes for cancer research.”  Doesn’t that sound nice?  Those who smoke have to fund cancer research.  It’s an indirect version of “smoker heal thyself.”  [...]

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Tweet I’ve never thought of myself as a libertarian.  Instead, I would characterize myself as a conservative with libertarian tendencies.  Why the distinction?  Because viscerally I viewed libertarians as fringe nutcases and because intellectually I did not, and do not, like libertarian foreign policy, especially when it comes to Israel. Watching Progressives/Liberals/Democrats at work, though, [...]

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Tweet I know a bit about really short buzz cuts.  On the kids’ swim team, when swim season starts, all the boys get buzzed.  They do it to each other, and they do a pretty darn good job:  take clippers, run them over person’s head, sweep up the mess.  It’s not complicated. Our President has [...]

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Tweet I’m impressed, both that these Politico writers wrote about the bias and that Politico published their article: Republicans cry “bias” so often it feels like a campaign theme. It is, largely because it fires up conservatives and diminishes the punch of legitimate investigative or narrative journalism. But it also is because it often rings [...]

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Tweet Apologies for not writing more today, but I’m just a little tired.  I seem to have used up my energy on running the household, and don’t seem to have anything left for blogging.  I see no reason, though, why I won’t regroup tomorrow.  I am assuming now that I’ll be in fine fettle then.

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Tweet I bet all of you all remember “Everyone Blog About Bret Kimberlin Day.”  After all, it took place less than a week ago.  For those unfamiliar with it, this is the way it worked: Conservatives bloggers learned that Brett Kimberlin, using both the legal system and a bit of self-help, was harassing those bloggers [...]

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Tweet Sergeant Major Michael Burke, who blogs at Castra Praetoria, is now stationed back in the U.S.  He’s also become a radio personality.  I’m happy (and not surprised) to say that Mike did a great interview.  As I told him, he’s either got a great job or a great personality — or both.  He sounds [...]

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Tweet Before I get to the winners from last week’s Watcher’s Council vote, I’d like to suggest that you toodle over to the Watcher’s of Weasels site yourself, to check out this week’s forum question:  “Prediction — What Will Happen in the Trayvon Martin Case?“  I had nothing to add, since everyone said things better [...]

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Tweet Chris Hayes got himself a great spanking because of his inability to acknowledge military heroism: CHRIS HAYES: Thinking today and observing Memorial Day, that’ll be happening tomorrow.  Just talked with Lt. Col. Steve Burke [sic, actually Beck], who was a casualty officer with the Marines and had to tell people [inaudible].  Um, I, I, [...]

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Tweet As is usually the case for me after a long weekend, my brain is a gray mush, and my paper inbox is piled high.  Between the one and the other, it takes me a little bit to regroup for blogging.  Until then — It’s Open Thread Time!  Yay!

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Tweet I promise that this post will be a review of Marcus Luttrell’s Service: A Navy SEAL at War.  First, though, I have to start with the ridiculous, before I can give proper context, not to the sublime (because war isn’t sublime), but to the important and meaningful. The ridiculous is, of course, MSNBC’s own [...]

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Tweet I have a question for you, my very knowledgeable friends.  I don’t like the taste of artificial sweeteners, nor do I even like the taste of corn syrup.  I like good old-fashioned cane sugar.  I’m old enough to live with that decision. Am I making a mistake, though, when I sweeten my children’s tea [...]

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Tweet On this day, as I do every day, I spare a long moment to give my deep and abiding gratitude to those who have served this nation and died in that service. Thank you.

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Tweet I have been following with interest the running comment thread on my post asking about whether electric cars are actually cleaner, or if they just shift pollution outside of the consumer’s view.  Very quickly, and probably inevitably, the post shifted to a cost-benefit analysis, which aimed to compare fossil fuel to alternative fuels.  Just [...]

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Tweet I’m not a Madonna fan.  Aside from the fact that her music doesn’t work for me, I think her decision to use sex as her primary sales pitch contributed to a decline in our young people’s culture (or lack thereof) over the past couple of decades. Nevertheless, I do believe in giving credit where [...]

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Tweet I got an email Virtual Boots on the Ground, which I’m reprinting below.  I can’t decide if this is a gimmick or a wonderful idea.  On the principle that there’s no harm if it’s a gimmick and a lot of good if it’s a wonderful idea, I signed up. Dear Fellow American, Memorial Day [...]

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Tweet Jack Kelly, the well-known columnist who writes for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, has taken on the claim that Barack Obama is the smartest president ever.  Those of us at the Bookworm Room have always derided this contention, which is built on fairy dust and unicorn horns. I was reading [...]

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Tweet 1988:  A serial liar, bomber, drug dealer, and criminal claims, without any corroborating evidence, that he sold pot to Vice Presidential candidate Dan Quayle.  Despite these allegations (which were almost certainly false), the Bush-Quayle ticket wins. 1992:  Governor William Jefferson Clinton contends that, while he put a joint to his lips and allow smoke [...]

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Tweet [UPDATE: This is why what we're doing is so desperately important. Not only are some police turning a blind eye to Kimberlin's activities (as described below), some of them are being innocently coopted into becoming armed weapons in Kimberlin's campaign.] [UPDATE:  Bumped this so new visitors to the site can see what's going on [...]

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Tweet I’m a fuddy duddy when it comes to the Star Spangled Banner.  I hate howling ululations and piercing shrieks.  It turns out, though, that if you give me a rockin’ good anthem, sung by guys who believe in every word, I will get those familiar chills down my spine that tell me I’m listening [...]

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Tweet Private Chris Kershaw, 19, a British soldier, didn’t really send a gift from the other side.  What he did, though, was think about the ones who would be left behind in the event he died in battle, and he left them a letter: The youngest of six British soldiers blown up by a Taliban [...]

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