Dept. of My Birthday

So having one’s birthday on the 13th of a month is kinda cool. Some years, it’s also a Friday, which pretty much demands a large, dangerous party. After this year, though, I may wish it were some other day.

The fact that they feel it necessary to point out that they will have a “real doctor” on hand makes it even creepier.|*|

Ha!

Remember those inane anti-drug ads during the Super Bowl, and the absurdly oversimplistic full-page print ads that followed? The ones that suggest that a casual pot user is “supporting terrorism” by purchasing illegal drugs, all the while ignoring the fact that it is prohibition that creates the black market and its exhorbitant prices? There’s finally a counterpoint. (PDF)

Society has officially collapsed.

Not only is Fox airing a show called “Glutton Bowl” — something I was pretty sure was an Onion story at first, I don’t mind admitting — but these freaks also appear to have some sort of governing body.

Bill Maher suggests that it’s shows like this that really make the rest of the world hate us. He can’t be far wrong.

Politics as usual, sort of.

The more politically plugged-in among you are probably already aware of the fight brewing over Shrub’s first big judicial nominee, but what you probably don’t know is that said nominee — Federal Judge Charles Pickering, up for the Court of Appeals — is my cousin. We’re not close, but we do see each other several times a year. This brings a new perspective to the whole confirmation battle scenario for me. Charles is a staunch Republican, and has certainly been active in the Mississippi GOP for years. He’s been on the Federal bench since 1990 — a position that, of course, also required Congressional approval. That time, it was unanimous.

It won’t be that way for the Court of Appeals. A movement is afoot, largely led by People for the American Way, to defeat his nomination for reasons that probably boil down to the fact that he’s a Republican, which strikes me as a poor way to pick judges. I certainly don’t agree with him politically, but by most accounts he’s been a fine and fair jurist. When the decidedly left-of-center Washington Post says it’s gotten needlessly mean, and that the charges of racism and worse are so much smoke and mirrors, well, you know something ugly is happening. Aside from this piece, the only other balanced material I’ve seen has been in the New York Times; today, there was a long article (registration required) on Charles’ minority support within Mississippi, which is also food for thought.|||||*|

Lonesome, Orn’ry, and Mean

There is much to hate about the Houston Chronicle, but the fact that Waylon Jennings’ obituary was front page news on Thursday can make up for at least some of it. (Of course, I’m not linking to it because of one of the aformentioned reasons to hate them: archives are a fee-only deal.)