Impolite Company

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

    Okay, I've taken some time off on The Smorgasbord, mainly because traffic has slowed dramatically since I started doing it.  I'm sure it's unrelated.  Would people come back if I figured out how to use an umlaut in the word?  But, by gawd, if I'm going down I'm gonna go down with my smorgasbord guns blazing (food fight).  Today's edition will start with Paul Krugman (whom I saw on television Sunday and thought he looked like a mad man, but i won't hold that against him). 
    Krugman's latest blog post asks the question, why are grain prices skyrocketing globally?  I thought it was just a combination of rising demand, bio-fuel production and rising fuel prices, but he says those factors aren't sufficient to explain what's going on.  It's a very interesting question:  Grains Gone Wild.

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

    Science Saturday?  Not really.  But this first post looks really interesting, a little exploration of how biologists can dig through the human genome to find our about the evolutionary past.  It's a moderately complex post, but very well-written and understandable to the lay person:  Reproductive History Writ Within the Genome.

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

    I don't get mad too often.  If you don't know me, I'm usually a pretty level-headed guy and even ideas that I strongly disagree with don't make me mad, I just shrug them off as people not thinking things through or going with their self interest over the common good or something.  But reading the details of VP Cheney's interview with Martha Radatz this morning really pissed me off.  His smug arrogance.  His refusing to treat the opinion of the American people as consequential in government decisions, as if the overwhelming dissatisfaction with the War in Iraq was some sort of polling blip that will be gone next week.  Why even sit down for an interview if you're just going to pretend you know things no one else could possibly know and that you can't be bothered to inform the American people what you're up to.  Superior son of a bitch.  Here's the article (yup, Dan Froomkin again):  Cheney Doesn't Care What You Think.

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

   

Spring is arriving an average of eight hours earlier each year for the past 26 years.  This is one of the most concrete examples of the global warming effect and it can have some seriously disruptive results.  The life cycles of plants and animals are based on the timing of seasonal changes--say a flower blooms early will there be a butterfly around to pollinate it?  It could increase the chances for a killing cold snap after plants have begun to flower.  Read more about it at:  Global Warming Hastens Springs Arrival.

Dan Froomkin might have to put me on payroll.  But once again, I find his column on the White House beat interesting and timely.  Today he starts off addressing Bush's assessment of our "success" in Iraq:

On the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, President Bush today attempted to recast it as a great success for the United States and a major blow to Osama bin Laden. But for the American people to go along with his construction will require a pretty severe case of amnesia.

Read his entire column here:  Bush's Triumphalist Amnesia.

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler (w/McCain Update)

    I've read some rave reviews of the Obama speech from yesterday and I think the first selection on the board today will be a sampling of those.  A lot of folks are looking at this as a historic speech, not just a rattling good campaign speech.  Check out this editorial from The Nation.  Andrew Sullivan wrote:

Alas, I cannot give a more considered response right now as I have to get on the road. But I do want to say that this searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching, loyal, and deeply, deeply Christian speech is the most honest speech on race in America in my adult lifetime. It is a speech we have all been waiting for for a generation.

You can read a little bit more from Sullivan here:  The Speech.

Ezra Klein wrote:

But this speech was something I didn't expect: Honest. It was honest about Obama's affection for Wright, even as it repudiated Wright's comments. It was honest about the tragic history of race in America, even as it expressed faith in a redemptive future.

And you can read the rest of it here:  The American Prospect.

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

    Five years after the war in Iraq began with the Shock & Awe campaign, I remain filled with shock at how badly mismanaged the entire affair has been (beginning with the decision to go to war) and awe at the sustained loss of life and limb suffered by Iraqis and our own service men and women.  My man Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post has his own smorgasbord of articles on the situation in Iraq, none of them as optimistic as VP Cheney's comment yesterday, referring to Iraq as a "successful endeavor."  No wonder he was such a lousy CEO at Halliburton.  Here's the link to Froomkin's round-up:  Bush's War, Five Years On.

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

    Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Through very careful calculations (pulled delicately out of me arse) I have determined that I am 17% Irish.  This is just Irish enough to hate green beer and dye in rivers, to feel vaguely uncomfortable about liking U2 so much (they so sold out since ______ {insert name of the last album you really loved}) and to enjoy a Guinness and a Harp now and again.

First good read of the day--the Gristmill explores the nuanced differences in cap and trade carbon policies via a conference involving representatives of Obama, Clinton and McCain.  I keep meaning to have a good sit down with this complex area of policy but haven't gotten around to it.  But this is pretty good stuff that makes the distinctions between the candidates meaningful:  Presidential Energy Advisers.  And they talk more about the same in a later post (includes the killer line, "Look do you want Lord of the Flies, or do you want a government"):  Presidential Advisers, Miscellanea. 

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

    It's Saturday, so the pickings on the buffet will be a little slimmer than usual today.  I did run across a very good blog post on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.  I know, I hate to type his name, much less have it appear on this site.  But the LWCS Act seeks to reduce carbon emissions by about 2% a year while still allowing the economy to grow.  EPA analysis of the bill indicates that by the year 2030 the US economy will have grown 80%--without the bill, growth would be 81%.  So much for the naysayers who scream that addressing climate change will kill the economy.  Read a little more about it at The Gristmill Blog.

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

    Not only did the new EPA Air Quality Standards not make the grade with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, apparently they weren't up to snuff for the EPA scientists, either.  If you'll remember from yesterday, the EPA's new standard clocks in a 75 parts per billion, five PPB less than the prior standard of 80.  The scientists recommended more:

The EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee recommended, however, a standard of 60 to 70 parts per billion, with the lower level suggested for children who are more vulnerable to ozone pollution, a prime component of smog.

Toughened Ozone Rules Fall Short of Recommendation

And the punchline for this story?  According to the Washington Post, the EPA weakened the standards because of direct, last minute intervention by President Bush.  Ozone Rules Weakened at Bush's Behest.  At least it's good to see that Perry and Bush are on the same page...

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

    For any of you interested in the case involving the murder of Eve Carson, student body president at UNC in Chapel Hill, the police have arrested two men.  The first has been charged with first degree murder and I don't think they have charged the second one yet.  Second Man Arrested in UNC Slaying.
    This one's for you Tiff (though I'm sure you already know)--the movie based on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will actually be split into two movies:  Last 'Harry Potter' Book Will Span Two Films.

The Smorgasbord--Daily Sampler

(This is just a little round-up of news stories I've found interesting this morning--might make it a daily feature and I will update it throughout the day if I run across more things of note)

    I've gotten to where I read Dan Froomkin's column, White House Watch, in the Washington Post every day.  It's always good reading but it may be sort of dependent on you really liking the ins-and-outs of government.  Today's column features the lawsuit to enforce subpoenas against Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten and the constitutional issues behind it.