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Drooling on the Pillow

Saturday, January 15, 2005

An Ugly Win 

Is a win.

Up the Rebar Nation.
Posted by: Sluggo / 8:07 PM
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Friday, January 14, 2005

That's Not a Boxcutter, It's My iPod 

I had my second encounter with the Secret Service today.

The first was probably twenty years ago when my girlfriend and I and another couple were touring the White House. The other young lady schmoozed an Agent into taking just the four of us for a private tour of the Oval Office. What are the odds of that happening today?

I hate to make today's encounter seem more interesting than it is (something about dropping a dead donkey?) by not talking about it, but I did promise. The donkey will drop on Monday. The Agent was extremely pleasant.

By the way, the spell checker rejected schmoozed and suggested Schenectady. Was I that far off?

Posted by: Sluggo / 2:17 PM
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Thursday, January 13, 2005

City Journal 

I've long been an admirer of City Journal the urban policy magazine that Peggy Noonan calls the "best magazine in America." The latest issue is terrific; stuffed, packed, groaning under the weight of smart, lively right-of-center wonkery. You get Brian Anderson's On Campus, Conservatives Talk Back, Victor David Hanson on Postmodern War, Peter Huber and Mark P. Mills on (I'm getting that 'funny feeling'') Why the U.S. Needs More Nuclear Power, Dr. Dyspeptic himself, Theodore Dalrymple on The Specters Haunting Dresden, and, best of all, Kay S. Hymowitz on Capitalists on Steroids, an article that enables Sluggo's 'relationship' with the television show "The Apprentice."
Posted by: Sluggo / 11:05 AM
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A Tip of the Tin Hat 

My thanks to Michael Blowhard at 2Blowhards for linking to two posts.
Posted by: Sluggo / 1:07 AM
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005

If We Allow This, Then The Democrats Will Have Won 

Whose ever bright idea it was to pay Armstrong Williams dime one should be strapped to a chair and made to watch Farenheit 9/11 for one week while Molly Ivins does commentary.

And then fired.

And then shot.

That goes for anyone who knew about the plan and didn't run screaming from the room.

And then made to sing a duet with Ashlee Simpson at the Super Bowl.

And then shot again.
Posted by: Sluggo / 3:40 PM
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Upon Further Review . . . 

The WSJ has an editorial today that takes the position that Dino Rossi got jobbed out the the Washington State governership, but he should moveon.

I agree.

The downside is that we really shouldn't be enabling the Democratic Party in it's rapidly expanding sense of entitlement to every close election and its grim determination to use any means necessary. As any parent knows, setting limits encourages growth.

The upside is that someone has to be the adult and the political life of this country is beginning to get lost in the funhouse. If the Washington election is further litigated they should go with the NFL replay standard. Only incontrovertable visual evidence can overturn the ruling on the field. Show me videotape or fingerprints nailing a Democratic official with illegally manipulating 130 votes or forget about it. Of course they stole it. A child can see that. But its not the first time nor the last. It's like stock shrinkage. Write it off and be smarter next time.

Bush Derangement Syndrome has created a very dangerous landscape. I have a friend who was talking about the stolen election in Florida. I said 'Yeah, that was close. Thank God the Supremes put an end to that." He looked confused for a moment and then went up in flames. Truth be told, I did it on purpose, but it is what I believe. But Ohio? How can any adult believe that the Ohio election was stolen? But they do. Intelligent, informed people, many of them, believe it.

Maybe we need to begin every day with a recitation of a few basic facts. Elections, even national ones, are handled locally. The good part is that no one act can steal the whole election. The bad part is that some of the locals are morons. But the essential part to remember is that all of the disputed counties in Florida and Ohio (and King County in Washington) were run by Democrats. They decided the budget allocation, the kind of ballots, the kind of machines, where they were placed and they were responsible for training the poll workers. This was obviously an advantage in Washington, but unless they are prepared to explain why Democratic County Election Commissioners conspired to steal elections for Republicans they should shut up and get on with it. And they should lose a time out.
Posted by: Sluggo / 1:02 PM
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Well, What's He Going to Say? 

The Sandy Berger affair has been way, way under the media radar for months, but, according to Instapundit is heating up. He links to a story in the New York Post that indicates he's sticking to his story that he snuck top secret documents out of the National Archives in his socks and pants 'by accident.'

I can't tell you the number of times I've looked all over the office for the toner cartridges only to get home and find them tucked away in my argyles.

He apparently also destroyed a number of documents, also, of course, 'by accident'.

Personally, I think Grace's default stall -- "I forget" -- is much more effective.

Cannot wait for this one to go public.
Posted by: Sluggo / 1:55 PM
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Florida, Ohio, Washington . . . 

Roberto, at DynamoBuzz has been hitting the Washington State election story. Here's what I think. Washington State (or Florida or Ohio, for that matter) is no more or less incompetent than other states in running their elections. However, there is a short fuse attached to every state and all that it takes to light it is a three or four digit margin. It was ever thus, but Florida and the Democrats' handling of it has upped the stakes considerably. There's no more of that foolish talk of graceful bow-outs or avoiding chaos. Chaos is just the starting gun for the lawyers. We're not used to this because everyone alive today over the age of 25 grew up in a world where the Democrats were overwhelmingly dominant at the national level. There were Republican presidents, but the Dems consistantly controlled the judiciary and legislative branches as well as most state houses. The 50/50 split has coarsened debate and put a hair-trigger under the litigation finger.

I wonder if anyone is aware of a period in our history when two parties split the electorate as evenly and how that landscape compared to ours.
Posted by: Sluggo / 1:16 PM
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"It's 420!...lets spark this thing up!" 

Barista of Bloomfield Avenue provides a link to an ad in Craig's List (since removed) advertising for someone to deliver marijuana in the Montclair/Clifton area. The ad is coded '420 source' and The Barista thoughtfully links to the Urban Dictionary where a number of stoners discuss the meaning and origin of the term '420' in between handfuls of Cheetos. My favorite:
The time of day when stoners all over the world like to
get high. 4:20 AM, PM or April 20th are the times to get
high, but the term 420 can also be used as an expression
of something that has to do with getting high. (sorry if this
makes no sense...i'm totally baked.)

Posted by: Sluggo / 10:54 AM
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Monday, January 10, 2005

They Hire a NJ Political Appointee and Were Expecting . . . ? 

Hoo-boy. Readers are aware that among Sluggo's less beguiling traits is a fondness for Trump's The Apprentice. Maybe fondness is the wrong word. I have a jones.

The new season doesn't start until January 20th, but I'm getting my Apprentice kicks already. This year they came up with the lame and soon to be discarded McGuffin of piting high school graduates (Street Smarts) against MBAs and other college graduates (Book Smarts).

One of the Street Smartz gang is Tara, who according to Steve Kornacki's PoliticsNJ is:
A New Jersey native who parlayed her work on Jim
McGreevey’s 2001 gubernatorial campaign into a stint as
the governor’s appointments director, Tara will be
competing alongside eight other high-achieving high
school graduates on a team dubbed Street Smarts.
They will vie with a team of well-heeled college graduates
-- Book Smarts -- with a plum $250,000 gig in the
Trump empire at stake.

Problem is, Tara turns out to be a graduate of UVA.

McGreevey could have saved himself a lot of trouble had he appointed Tara to be the NJ Homeland Security coordinator. Except that, diploma or no, she obviously lacked one critical qualification.

Posted by: Sluggo / 1:12 PM
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Sunday, January 09, 2005

Place Holder 

I'm looking for one. In reference to the last post, I think the asterisks are lame. I particularly admire Jim, at Parkway Rest Stop's 'Farookin'. There's Lileks' 'farging'. There's flipping, flarking, mucking and f'ing. There's a thousand more. You want something that's unambiguous, but phonically as distant as possible.

Leo Rosten joke. The Israeli who learned English by typing a Yiddish-English dictionary. "My friend wanted me to go sky-diving. I said no. I have only one *."
Posted by: Sluggo / 5:54 PM
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F*** You Day 

Had one today. Link.
Posted by: Sluggo / 5:52 PM
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