I really liked this book. In terms of a good fantasy book, I think it ranks with Robert Jordan

Federal Air Marshal Service Director Thomas Quinn dumber than a box of rocks. Michelle Malkin reports:

he man in charge of our in-flight cops, who are supposed to be spying secretly on would-be terrorist hijackers, refuses to allow his employees to dress undercover. Quinn insists that air marshals abide by military-style grooming standards and a rigid business dress policy regardless of weather, time of year or seating arrangement. He wants them to look PROFESSIONAL.

That means collared shirts and sports coats — even if a pair of marshals is traveling in coach from Los Angeles to Orlando.

As The Washington Times recently reported, Quinn blew his top on Thanksgiving when he spotted nearly 30 marshals at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., in violation of his insipid dress code. Some were reportedly threatened with suspension.

Oh thank goodness we have people like Thomas Quinn in charge of making us safer. Quinn couldn’t be more stupid if he tried.

From Kaus:

Has Hillary committed any “intimate transgressions”? We’ll soon find out! Hasn’t Bernard Kerik performed a huge service for journalism (and the Republican party)? Because of his sacrifice, we now have a dramatically lowered standard for when the New York Times will report the intimate details of public figures’ private lives. Kerik was having “clandestine love affairs” in a Battery Park City apartment he apparently paid for. The Times first reported these “intimate transgressions”–and named one of Kerik’s partners, Titian-tressed titan Judith Regan–even after Kerik had withdrawn from consideration as Homeland Security secretary citing an illegal-nanny problem. … Somwhere, Jeffrey Toobin is turning over in his grave. Toobin argued absurdly that a politician’s sex life is off limits to journalists’ because it “tells you absolutely nothing about their performance in office”. But Kerik wasn’t even going to perform in office! He was out. … The Times, a principled organization, will presumably apply the Kerik precedent in years to come when Democratic figures are involved. I especially look forward to the paper’s multiple-reporter investigation of Hillary Clinton’s erotic life when she runs for Senate in 2006. All of her housekeepers need to be produced, of course, and if she has any lovers other than her faithful husband we’ll find that out too! … P.S.: Plus, following the Kerik precedent, it will be enough if “someone who spoke to” Hillary about any relationship can vouch for it. Hearsay evidence about sex is good enough for the Times!

I use the word hero sparingly to only describe people who really sacrifice for other. Rafael Peralta is a true hero. And Pablo Paredes is a oath breaking coward. Peralta rolled onto a grenade to save his comrads. Paredes, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class, refused to board a ship to go to Iraq. I have no sympathy for people who join the military and then refuse fight. Paredes knew that when he joined, so I hope he enjoys military prison and spending the rest of his life as a convicted felon. Here’s what Citizen Smash has to say about the coward Paredes:
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A couple years ago I saw John McCain at Lake Powell. I’ve always wished that I would have had something pithy and insulting to tell him. Here’s another reason why I can’t stand the man–McCain is threatening to hold up every piece of legislation in the Senate while House leaders refused to go along with McCain

Check out Baseball Crank’s listing of the great pitchers of all time. We have been lucky to see Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, and Greg Maddux. For pitchers that have pitched 3000 career innings or more they have the 3rd, 4th, and 5th lowest ERAs (actually it’s not really ERA but ERA+) of all time. Only Lefty Grove and Walter Johnson have lower ERA’s.

Here’s why you knw that Bon Jovi sucks–they named their Box Set “100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong.” Are these guys this so self-conscious that they have to remind us how many albums they have sold? All I have to say is that quantity doesn’t equal quality and this is a fine example of the argumentum ad populum fallacy.

My first year in law school I had property from Paul Campos. He was a very funny professor, but I can’t say that I learned all that much in class. But one thing to say about Paul Campos is that he has diverse interests. Here’s an he wrote for today’s NY Times magazine about applying Sabermetrics to Football.

This is beautiful display of how to use a trampoline.

According to Yahoo News, Bill Moyers is retiring and he says:

“I’m going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee,” says Moyers. “We have an ideological press that’s interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that’s interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don’t have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people.”

Either Moyers is clueless or he is really promoting his last program. I guess I would have to watch Moyers show to see if he has any specific examples, but the more blatant example of partisanship was shown by CBS and Dan Rather and the memogate affair. It was obviously forgery, but it took an awful long time for Dan Rather to acknowledge that their story relied on a forged document.

I don’t argue with Moyers that certain news organizations are right wing (ie. Fox News and the Washington Times), but an awful lot of news organizations are left wing (CNN, ABC, CBS, Washington Post, NY Times, LA Times–pretty much the who’s who of news).

So is the story of our time that Republicans finally got equal time on a network instead of being slighted by an “ideological press that’s interested in the election of” Democrats? Is Moyers so far left that he thinks the mainstream media is in the middle?

And what stories did the mainstream media miss? And what hasn’t been told by for-profit companies? Michael Moore is as for profit as you get–what did he miss?

Moyers might be a great journalist, but he seems to have lost his ability to reason at the end of his career.