Ready, Set, Go

Twin brothers, both gay porn actors, and both suspected burglars.  If nothing else, they are prepared for prison life.

Check Her ‘Dex

Byron York, in NR:

But there are still problems. As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.” A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”

What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.

Another advantage that Mrs. Obama has over the average Zanesvillian is that she and Barack had “Rezko” in their phone’s address book.  Not a bad guy to call in a time of need.

Chief Illiniwek’s Victory

Almost four-in-five students at the University of Illinois want to bring him back.

I Agree. John McCain Is a Rather Conservative Liberal.

Fun With Headlines

Columbia Tribune:  Jetton: I’m an Onder kind of guy

It should be ornery.

Reuters:   Spanking children can lead to problems later in life

Not spanking children can lead to bigger problems later in life.

Bloomberg:   Gay Clinton Backers Defect to Obama, Eroding Her Base

Queer eyes for the straight guy.

AP:   Enrique Iglesias to quit before age 50

Who?

AFP:   Harry ‘doesn’t like England,’ lashes British media

Good going, England.  Your third-in-line to the throne doesn’t even like his own country.

The Master Switch

The hormone testosterone has been described as the master switch behind human criminality and deviancy. One can’t help but think of that hypothesis over and over upon examining this chart (h/t Thug Report).

One out of every 102 adults was incarcerated as of mid-2006. The extremes are 1 in 9 black men 20-34 as the most criminal, and 1 in 11,111 white women 55+ as the least criminal.

Curiously, the statistically most dangerous age range for white men is 30-34. This might present a flaw in the master switch theory, because we’re told that the works start declining in men once they pass 30 (don’t remind me). Either white men peak at a little later age than others, or there’s another explanation — while a white man in that age range is a little past peak, it’s not as if he’s falling down a steep cliff. His testosterone level still is rather high, just not as high as it was for him in his previous decade.

Perhaps it is the case that white men in the 30-34 range are at a sweet spot in life between testosterone and experience, such that, relative to white men of other age ranges, he is young and aggressive enough to do criminal things, but old and experienced enough to plan things and control his passions for the greater cause of whatever scam he has dreamed up.

I know that the military’s elite troops are overwhelmingly white men in that age range, because that sweet spot makes an ideal member of the special forces. He is virile enough to take care of business, but not so virile, and experienced enough, to know when it’s not proper to ride to the Alamo. Similarly, in track and field, men who compete in the Olympic decathlon tend to be around 30, for much the same reason — strong and athletic enough to do well in the ten events, but experienced enough to know how to stagger one’s effort in each of the events to garner enough points for a high combined score.

Therefore, that which makes that white man of 30-34 in ideal Green Beret or decathloner might well make him (relative to white men of other ages) a dangerous criminal prospect.

Doin’ It and Doin’ It Well

There was an episode of Two and a Half Men a few years ago.  It started with southern California having an earthquake.  Everyone else in the house battons down, except Charlie, who’s up in his room doing what he does best, with the earth rumbling enhancing the affair.  After the quake stops, and everyone else assesses the situation, Charlie comes down.  He was unaware that there was an earthquake, and he thought what he did was entirely his own prowess.

This really happened for the pairing of Rob Wilkinson, 19, and Charlotte Green, 17, of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England the night of the 5.2 magnitude shaker a few days ago whose epicenter was nearby.

You Floridians Could Have This License Plate

But Florida Governor Charlie “NAACP” Crist doesn’t want you to have that option.

BY THE WAY — Crist endorsed McCain, and obviously Lindsay Graham did.  Crist, like Graham, is rumored to be batting for the home team.  What is it that they see in John McCain?  I thought Bravo canceled that show.

RNC Concedes Election to Obama, And It’s Only February

Politico:

RNC chair goes on the record denouncing Tenn GOP

One day after issuing a private warning to the Tennessee Republican Party over their use of Barack Obama’s middle name in a press release, the RNC  this morning went public with their complaint.

“The RNC rejects these kinds of campaign tactics,” said national party chairman Mike Duncan in a statement sent unsolicited to Politico.

“And we promise never to criticize Mr. Obama about anything ever again,” added Duncan.

I’ll Call Myself Paranoid

But I’m going to say it anyway.

AP:

Harvard scholars to explore Net safety

NEW YORK – Leading Internet scholars at Harvard Law School will head a task force exploring the safety of users at MySpace and other popular online hangouts amid growing fears that youngsters have become targets of sexual predators.

The creation of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force is part of an agreement that MySpace, a unit of News Corp., reached with all attorneys general except Texas’ in January.

I’m not taking this at face value. Are we supposed to believe that Harvard Law School, an institution that probably has a sizable minority of professors in its entire faculty, law and otherwise, that secretly (or not so secretly) wants to legalize pedophilia, especially the kind which portends male homosexuality, is truly going to want to squelch what they advocate?

Considering that the source is Harvard, and that Alan Dershowitz is its law school’s most famous prof, the target isn’t illicit sex, it’s right-wing political content.

Fun With Headlines

NY Sun: Democrats Rile Canada, Mexico — Vows To Renegotiate Nafta Met With Stiff Resistance

Democrats’ preference for OH, PA over .ca, .mx means victory in November.

AP: New Latino wave helps revitalize Detroit

Of course, Detroit had nowhere to go but up.

Reuters: Lawmakers seek perjury probe of Roger Clemens

Since it’s just about baseball*, there should be a censure alternative.

CQ Politics: Ron Paul Sharing The Political Wealth With Like-Minded Candidates

John McCain’s old age and treachery will be defeated by Ron Paul’s money and skill.

Georgetown University Press Release:   DNC Chair [Howard Dean] Speaks During Black History Month 

Black History Month for Georgetown means watching Hoyas basketball film from the 1980s.

Money is the Crux of the Matter

Guess what.  The state is about ready to bilk you to the tune of $1,040 for the privilege of memorializing drunk driving victims with roadside memorials.  The same bill would prohibit the homemade wooden-cross memorials on state right-of-way.  Why am I not surprised that the fee is the number 1040?

I’m also wondering what is so bad about wooden crosses on the sides of roads that the state wants to get rid of them, and making the legit memorials prohibitively expensive such that there will be very few of them.  I’m guessing it has to do with a certain company not way too far from your blogmeister, one that wields a big stick in state politics.

Trev on BHO

London Sunday Times:

Obama victory will prolong US racial divide, says British equality chief

One of Britain’s most influential black figures today accused Barack Obama of cynically exploiting America’s racial divide and gave warning that he could prolong, rather than heal the rift.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, claimed that the Democratic front-runner would ultimately disappoint the African-American community and dismissed the notion that he would be “the harbinger of a post-racial America” if he becomes the country’s first black President.

Writing in Prospect, the monthly current affairs magazine, Mr Phillips suggested that guilt over transatlantic slavery was behind Mr Obama’s support from middle class whites.

“If Obama can succeed, then maybe they can imagine that [Martin Luther] King’s post-racial nirvana has arrived. A vote for Obama is a pain-free negation of their own racism. So long as they don’t have to live next door to him; Obama has yet to win convincingly in white districts adjacent to black communities,” he wrote.

Translated into English, this means that Trevor Phillips and Steve Sailer agree on something, that white liberals and neo-libs have more invested in Obama than anyone, because Obama serves as their imaginary black friend that they have to prove they’re not racist.

Daydream On

Does the fact that John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone to American parents not make him a “natural-born citizen,” as the Constitution requires Presidents to be?

Democrats and many anti-McCain Republicans will push the issue, but I highly doubt that the Federal courts would say no to the son of a four-star Navy Admiral and the grandson of a three-star Navy Admiral, if the matter gets that far.

I do find the irony delicious that the man who wants to grant citizenship to tens of millions of non-citizens might, in theory, not be a citizen enough himself to be President.

America On Trial in Melbourne

Oh, yeah, and lost in all the anti-American hoopla is that a number of Australian men with Arabic names might have been involved in terrorist conspiracies.  The defense lawyers seem to have been successful in putting ole Uncle Sam on trial.  Meaning that the new defendant also has a beard and unique headwear.

The last time something like this happened, Mark Furman was put on trial, even though he wasn’t the one in the white Bronco that the cops were chasing.

RICO vs Red Light Cameras

Now, this is interesting. Chet Pleban is using RICO’s civil arm to nix red light cameras in Arnold, and presumably elsewhere.

I think the argument is going to be that since Arnold can’t prove that the car’s registrant(s) is the person driving the car when the cameras spot it running a red light, that Arnold’s attempt to collect fines from the registrant constitutes a “bad act.” And since there have been at least three of these “bad acts” within a ten-year period, then this shows that Arnold is a corrupt organization.

Fun With Headlines

UK Daily Mail:  ‘The white working class feels alienated, threatened and voiceless,’ says BBC boss

The BBC could easily solve that problem.  Then again, the BNP already is.

P-D:  Taking a swing at aluminum bats

This is one chemical advantage that baseball* players don’t have to inject.

CNN:  Marc Andreessen’s [New York Times] deathwatch

Isn’t this the same Marc Andreessen that let the company that made “an obsolete set of buggy device drivers” run what was probably the first dot-com boom company out of business?

Enough of This

I’ve seen enough of HRC/BHO in Cleveland tonight on MSNBC.  Both of them whined about how the other was picking on them, and the only thing they could do well is spout off the names of Ohio cities.

HRC’s proposal to ameliorate NAFTA would be like putting lipstick on a pig.

Practice Makes Perfect

BBC:

Solo showers in jails boost CO2

Giving prisoners their own showers has forced up the government’s carbon dioxide emissions, official statistics have shown.

Carbon emissions within former Home Office bodies, including the prison service, rose from 28,237 tonnes in 2005-06 to 28,925 tonnes in 2006-07.

The rise has been attributed to the increase in the prison population and the provision of in-cell showers.

(snip)

In a Commons written reply, junior justice minister Maria Eagle said the rise in CO2 resulted from an increase in the prison population and in “regime facilities”, such as the provision of in-cell showers as opposed to communal showers.

The figures relate to the Home Office before it was split into two separate departments for security and for justice in April last year.

Last year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown committed the UK to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60% before 2050 to help tackle global warming.

This means that British prison inmates will soon have to return to the gang showers.  I can imagine that many of them are in their cells right now practicing holding onto a wet bar of soap.

The House That Nadhmi Built

Maybe the British-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi didn’t actually build Barack Hussein Obama’s (sorry, John McCain, for using his middle name) controversial Chicago house, but it looks like his fortune, and big contributions from it to BHO’s campaign coffers, might have helped that certain real estate transaction along.

McCain Concedes to Obama, And It’s Only February

AP:

CINCINNATI – Republican John McCain quickly denounced the comments of a radio talk show host who while warming up a campaign crowd referred repeatedly to Barack Hussein Obama and called the Democratic presidential candidate a “hack, Chicago-style” politician.

Hussein is Obama’s middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee’s appearance.

“Now we have a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician who is picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you’re going to have in your pocket is change,” Cunningham said as the audience laughed.

The time will come, Cunningham added, when the liberal-leaning media will “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama” and tell the truth about his relationship with indicted fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko and how Obama got “sweetheart deals” in Chicago.

McCain wasn’t on stage or, he says, in the building when Cunningham made the comments, but he quickly distanced himself from the radio talk show host after finishing his speech. McCain spoke to a couple hundred people at Memorial Hall in downtown Cincinnati.

“I apologize for it,” McCain told reporters, addressing the issue before they had a chance to ask the Arizona senator about Cunningham’s comments.

“And I’ll never criticize a liberal Democrat ever again,” McCain promised later.

As Rush said today, if JM’s middle name was Adolph, there would be no reticence among any Democrat in making an issue of it.

It should be noted that Bill Cunningham took over the Matt Drudge Sunday night radio show last September.

Fun With Headlines

P-D:  Two new murders in StL — 20 minutes and 2 miles apart

Those places two miles apart have a lot in common.

P-D:  Corruption case judge: Blagojevich is ‘Public Official A’

And soon to be Federal prisoner A3824DD6, with some guy named George R. as a cellmate.

Rasmussen:  Ohio Democratic Presidential Primary, Clinton Lead Slipping in Ohio

It’s spelled N-A-F-T-A.

McPaper:  Teens losing touch with common cultural and historical references

Better headline:  Public schools not teaching cultural literacy, in favor of diversity and condoms
WND:  Mexican prez: Closing border a ‘mistake’

He means our southern border, not his.

Brock-en Promises

P-D:

Football star-turned-candidate has never voted

As a football star at Mizzou, Brock Olivo led the team to its first bowl game in over a decade. But there is one place that he never reached: the ballot box.

Public records show Olivo, who is now running for Congress, has never voted in an election, in Missouri or elsewhere.

Olivo, a fan favorite when he played for the Tigers from 1994-97, acknowledged Monday that he has not cast a single ballot since becoming eligible more than a dozen years ago.

“I got caught up in the wave of apathy that has affected many of my generation,” Olivo, 31, said. “I’m the first to admit that I was wrong for not voting.”

Olivo, a Republican, launched his bid earlier this month to represent Missouri’s 9th Congressional District, which stretches from Columbia to Lake Saint Louis. He has joined a crowded crop of candidates vying to replace U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, who entered the race for governor after Republican incumbent Matt Blunt’s abrupt decision not to seek a second term.

(snip)

His indifference, Olivo says, stemmed from dissatisfaction with political leaders.

“I was a little frustrated with the constant rhetoric and the broken promises,” he said.

(snip)

Even so, Olivo — one of only a handful of Missouri football players to get his number retired — enters the congressional race with immediate advantages: instant name recognition and an admiring fan base.

How ironic it would be if Olivo lost because all those football fans under 30 were too apathetic about his campaign promises to go out and vote for him.

Momentary Dyslexia

I blew past the cereal aisle at the grocery store late this afternoon, and for a split second, I thought the box of rice-based cereal read “Rice Cripsies,” as in the Crips.  That the box was blue might have thrown me.

Actually, the Crips do like to snap, crackle and pop, but I don’t think Old Man Kellogg had that in mind when he started doodling with rice.

Fun With Headlines

Canada.com:  Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies

Hell must be freezing over, as both the Canadian left and the American right are both worried about the same thing.

AP:  Obama Hits Clinton on NAFTA Support

Obama wishes to win OH, PA

Fox News:   School Suspends Teens [for Gang-Related Behavior] for Wearing Crucifixes

So the authorities are treating Christianity as a gang?  I looked it up, and the principal’s name is not Pontius Pilate.

KSDK:  Higher Education: Oakland Trade School Teaching People How to Grow Marijuana

I looked it up — the Chancellor is not named Mary Jane.

Birmingham News:  Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly says conservatives downbeat over presidential election

Republican Presidential nominees becoming less of a choice and more of an echo with time.

UK Daily Mail:  ‘We’ve lost control of our borders for the first time since 1066,’ says judge after foreign detainees riot

How can you lose control of your borders if you’re surrounded by ocean on all sides?

AP:  Convicted ex-cop pleads for his life

Mr. Cutts does realize that he, as an ex-cop, would die sooner in prison genpop than he would awaiting execution on death row, doesn’t he?

Reuters:   Clinton accuses Obama of inexperience abroad

And then touts her husband’s experience with broads

AP:  German police dogs to wear shoes

German cop overheard at Monte Carlo saying, “C’mon baby, Fido needs a new pairs of shoes.”

AFP:   Hair test can map movements in US: study

No more beating the cops by a hair

Reuters:   Teenage anger linked to brains: study

Unlike adult anger, which is linked to the other brainless end of the torso.

“What’s Left?”

Whoever Jason Cosby, of Lincoln, Ill., is, he just blew right past me in the anti-black bigotry department.  One of the two players that Floyd Irons set up in a north St. Louis apartment after he moved them across the river from Alton, has been suspended from his basketball scholarship at Lincoln College.  Mr. Cosby, reacting to this news, said this:

“Who’s that gonna help?” asked Jason Cosby, a town resident and basketball fan. “No one. I’m just saying — punish every step of the process — but not Bobby Hill.

“If you take basketball away,” he asked between swigs, “what’s left?”

Black men are only good for professional or semi-professional basketball?  That’s a line I won’t even cross, simply because it’s not true.  Actually, most blacks aren’t professional basketball players, much less most people.  As for his question, the answer is a lifetime of affirmative action sinecures.

Fun With Headlines

WND:  Nader announces new bid for White House

Giving the massive and all-important Dennis Kucinich constituency another shot.

CSM:  South Africa tunes in to racial harmony

Evidently, white people didn’t know how to dance until a few centuries ago.

AP:   [Florida Marlins] looking for a few fat men [as cheerleaders]

So, they’ll be going from “The Biggest Loser” to cheering for the biggest losers.

Fun With Headlines

WND:  NFL to churches: Party away!  League changes rules to allow Super Bowl events

What would one expect of a Commissioner with “Good” in his name?

Reuters:   Mugabe to launch re-election bid at [84th] birthday bash

Bingo.  We’ve found a head of state older and crazier than John McCain.

LiveScience:  Virtual Teachers Outperform Real Thing

Soon, they’ll want to form a virtual union.

Lessons From Michelle Obama’s Senior Thesis

(1) In spite of Princeton’s left-wing and pandering atmosphere, the future Mrs. Obama was not comfortable there, and felt racially isolated.

(2) No wonder Princeton did not want to release it. It was probably the first time since it was filed away that anyone had any interest in it. Finding it was one thing — wiping off 23 years worth of dust was another.

(3) Fewer than 90 black Princeton alums, a response rate of 22%, responded to the future Mrs. Obama’s survey. I hardly think that that’s enough for a credible thesis.

(4) Maybe her somewhat haughty tone is understandable — this was written during the time period in which she was not proud of her country.

UPDATE 2/23:  And here it is online.

Recognition

The USA, UK, Germany, Italy, France and Australia have recognized Kosovo.  But it has not yet earned the recognition of Larry Page and Sergey Brin.  And in this day and age, that’s the imprimatur that matters.