Electricty From Shock Absorbers

The top 5 hits of 1979:

Andrew Sullivan:

These people are not making a good faith argument. They are transparent defenders of the indefensible. Arianna is right: this is a defining moment for America. This is not now and never has been a question of right versus left. It is right vs wrong. It is a bright line which the black-and-white crowd has suddenly decided is oh-so-gray. But we have their testimony now. And history has it for ever.

No, they are not making a good-faith argument. But really, this whole debate is a right/left issue.

What you have is a group of people who are upset at America's use of torture, and a second group of people who have decided that the first group is a threat to the GOP. The latter group knows it will be a huge black mark on their party if anyone bigger than Lynndie England goes down over this, and they are trying everything they can to make sure that never happens. They're the right. And they're convinced that anyone who questions the GOP is a leftist.

So when they tell other people that what happened “wasn’t really torture”, or that it only happened to the worst of the worst, or that the Dems were complicit too, they are simply trying to keep the uninformed from thinking so poorly of the GOP that they abandon the party. They need to maintain a mass of people who think questioning torture is some kind "witch hunt" in order to avoid mass exodus. It’s 100% partisan.

It's a right/left issue, but only in the sense that the "right' has decided that being tarnished by the prosecutions of Bush administration officials is a worse fate than allowing torture of a few people that nobody really liked anyway.

Do Not Want

Go Go! Wilson, NC!

The Bike Wanted To Win

CNN.com:

gum-chewing students had a 3 percent increase in their standardized math test scores compared with those who did not chew gum. Also, the students who chewed gum had better final grades compared with the non-chompers.

He also reports that teachers anecdotally found that students who chewed gum required fewer breaks, paid better attention and stayed quiet longer than those who did not.

...

Another study adds to a growing body of evidence centering on chewing gum satiety and cravings. Investigators at Louisiana State University took 115 people who regularly chewed gum and fed them lunch. They measured their cravings before and after lunch. They found that those subjects, who chewed gum three times hourly after lunch, ate fewer high-calorie snacks. The chewers also reported decreased feelings of hunger and cravings for sweet foods.

...

The American Dental Association says on its Web site that "chewing sugarless gum for 20 minutes following meals can help prevent tooth decay" and recommends looking for gum with its ADA-approved seal. The saliva produced in the mouth by the physical act of chewing can wash away acids and bacteria, thereby protecting teeth.

Besides beating tooth decay, independent research finds that gum can aid in reducing the symptoms of acid reflux disease. The saliva flow can lead to an antacid effect in the stomach.

I knew I was right to love gum.

Many years ago, someone gave me a bunch of MP3s - a whole lot of stuff I didn't care for, some things I had a mild interest in, a little I'd never heard before, etc.. One of the latter was a bunch of songs from The Beta Band. The song titles are all "Track 01 Beta Band", "Track 02 Beta Band", "Track 03 Beta Band", etc.. I assume whoever ripped the songs was too lazy to correct the file names with the real song titles.

My only previous exposure to the Beta Band was that little reference they got in High Fidelity. But, I put those songs on my iPod and left them there. They pop up on shuffle from time to time but I've always been basically ambivalent towards them. I like them enough that they've survived countless playlist prunings and reworkings, but I've never gone home and played those songs deliberately.

Then, yesterday, as if a switch was flipped, I realized that I really like the Beta Band. I played those songs while I was cooking dinner and was all like "Woahhh. Awesome duuudde! Why didn't I do this three years ago?"

But, I can only identify two or three of the songs I have, and they're not from the same BB record. So now I'm going to have to buy all of their records.

Andrew Bird on "vitriolic" comments on his pieces at the "Measure For Measure" blog:

My first response to some of the comments was “Wow, that’s cold,” then, “Oh, but you haven’t been listening” — and then, “Really, you speak as if I have some choice over what I write and if I have some obligation to address the things you or the average American might care about.”

There’s a whole industry devoted to writing songs pitched toward a certain demographic. All I can do is write about what I care about and hope you might relate. And if not, here are some sweet melodies. This is my life’s work and I’ve been immersed in it so long that I can’t really extract one from the other. So I kept envisioning one of those bumper stickers on the back of a semi-trailer that says, “How’s my driving? Call…” I kept thinking, “How’s my living?” as if I were taking suggestions.

MSNBC headline:

Police probe possible poisoning of polo horses

Why not finish the job make it "Police probe possible poisoning of polo ponies" ? Or, even better, "Police probe possible polo pony poisonings" ? Or, the topper "Police probe possible poisonings of Venezuelan, Victor Vargas', prize polo ponies" !

I mean, if you're going to alliterate, why not go all the way ?