Late Night

Rock on.

Period Police

While the Villagers seemed to object, and it didn't go well with the audience, I was quite pleased with Obama's response that the question of when life begins is above his pay grade. I remember Pastor Tim Russert asking, I think, Claire McCaskill a similar question and she was like, "What are you asking? When does an embryo become ensouled?"

Believe what you want, but the important question for politicians is how such things get translated into... policy. And when McCain says he believes life begins at conception (cheer!) it's pretty meaningless unless he's asked to explain how that would be translated into policy. Are blastocysts entitled to child support? Do all late periods need to be reported to the Ministry of Health? And, of course, my favorite: Are those who implant multiple embryos during IVF treatments, knowing full well that most will die, guilty of negligent manslaughter?

Abortion

While I do think it functions well as a wedge issue for Republicans, as it neatly combines our society's general love of moral tuttuting with its specific disapproval of independent female sexuality, support for the pro-choice position consistently remains high. A few scolds can always be peeled off with things like "Congressman Smith thinks it's okay for a woman to have an abortion if she doesn't like the baby's hair color." But, basically, it's a pro-choice country even if some people need to have it explained to them that "choice" means choice for thee and for me.

Wanker of the Day

Tom Shales.

I Don't Usually Use This Word

But nothing else really seems to quite apply here. What a tremendous douchebag.

Zombie Lies

We've been plugging bullets into its head for over a decade now. Must be some sort of SUPERZOMBIE.

Early Evening Thread

enjoy

Dumbass Of The Day

This is too idiotic to qualify for "wanker" status.

Newt Gingrich.

Raptured Up Into The Cabinet

Awhile back at Drinking Liberally I mentioned that one extra advantage of having a Democratic president is that you can put some senators who have been in office way too long in the Cabinet and provide an opportunity for some more fresh faces. That means senators who a) aren't actually awful so having them in the Cabinet isn't bad, b) have been in the Senate a long time, and c) live in states with Dem governors so their temporary replacements will be Dems, and d) live in relatively blue states so a Dem would be able to win an election.

It being Drinking Liberally it was too hard to come up with the list. So who should be on it?

Prime example: Joe Biden, who has been there since 1973.

Extra credit assignment: Republican senators who live in relatively blue states with Democratic governors who could be convinced to join the Cabinet.

Biden

I'm a lot cooler on Biden than Josh, but like Chris it wouldn't bother me that much if he were to be chosen. Of the people I don't really want to be Veep who keep showing up on those fake short lists people keep coming up with he bothers me the least.

Enthusiasm!!

Duh

Rather obvious ruling, but good nonetheless.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― California's high court has ruled doctors cannot withhold care to gays or lesbians based on religious beliefs.

The case stems from a San Diego-area lesbian's claim that a private fertility clinic refused to inseminate her because of her sexual orientation.

Little Pieces

Often it takes very little to tip a neighborhood one way or another. A couple more viable retail spaces, a couple fewer abandoned lots, etc. Removing all kinds of unwise impediments to development and redevelopment would be a good thing.

Making property tax assessments a bit more realistic is a way to provide some encouragement to owners who are just sitting on properties.

And Of Course

Modern technology means you can, you know, access information and audio and video and all kinds of stuff from a moving vehicle. You don't need a teevee to know what's on the teevee.

Nobody Could Have Predicted

That the housing bubble-related housing crisis might be a wee bit more problematic than most "experts" usually cited on the subject.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Monday as investors fretted about the prospect of more losses from the mortgage crisis, sending shares of the two big U.S. home finance providers and other financial companies lower.

Investors were hit with a one-two punch from news pointing to no let up in the credit crisis stemming from the U.S. housing slump.

What To Expect From Politicians

Most people don't pay all that much attention to politics. When they take a moment every 4 years or so to do so, they take their cues from The Very Serious People who rule our discourse. And those Very Serious People tell people that personality and tribal connections are how candidates should be judged, like reality TV show contestants, instead of trying to communicate the idea that POTUS is a rather important job.

I recognize that inevitably a lot of politics is going to come down to those things. People who don't pay all that much attention to things are going to make their decisions based largely on personality. But the problem is that too many in our media help reinforce the idea that this is how decisions should be made.

Have To Get The Jokes

We've had years of newsies decrying the rise of "fake news," always missing the obvious point that you'll pretty much only find the Daily Show and Colbert funny if you know enough to know what they're talking about it.

Every 4 Years

I'm sure we'll be treated to all kinds of discussion over the next week about how the conventions are stupid and the media shouldn't bother covering them, even as 15,000 media people head to Denver.


It is true that there's absolutely no reason for 15,000 media people to show up to the convention, except the real reason they all show up which is that they see it as one of their proms. It's the big party. But that's a very different issue than whether some teevee networks should run the feed in prime time.

Wine In A Box

The writer makes the case that American wine producers should move to selling wine in boxes. I'm sold. Aside from many non-legitimate snob issues and semi-legitimate aesthetic issues, the big problem is that much existing boxed wine isn't just bad wine, but wine coolerish fake wine.

(via Susie).

Cheap Money

As I've long said, when buying a house the only thing that people really care about is the affordability of the monthly payment. Interest-only, neg-am, and ARMs with low teasers helped drive up the purchase price of homes by driving down the monthly payments. Sure some people should've known better and not fallen for the idea that they could just keep refinancing forever, but plenty of people were steered into mortgage products they didn't understand.

Because Highways Are Free

A glibertarian candidate for something in California. Really needs to work on his writing skills.

We have practical highways throughout the region, but to find funding for the extension of the Metro Gold Line is not practical. We would have a better idea of the costs of light rail if we would start charging users the actual cost of riding the bus line. Once we would establish this acceptable price by those who choose to use the bus, then we could get a correct method for calculating the costs of extending the line from Pasadena to Montclair.

We just don't use buses with a frequency that causes even a slight profit. If public transportation were really needed or even moderately desired, the market demand would make it happen. When the iPhones went on sale, did we have to levy taxes to get people to buy them? We didn't have to raise taxes to put a computer in virtually every home, either. Good ideas are swarmed by people wanting to use them.