Internal Monologue

Greenwald links to Jane Hamsher's take on Saddam's Execution : [...]Any sympathy I might feel for Saddam's plight would find him standing at the end of a very long line of victims of this war, and it's not even an abhorrance of the death penalty that moves me today (although I most certainly feel that this is nothing a civilized nation has any place engaging in). That sickened feeling in my stomach seems to mark some kind of new low to which we have fallen, murder as PR to inch the arctic approval ratings of the pathalogical boy king and his disastrous war incrementally upward. Codpiece justice and death-as-photo-op reign supreme. Perhaps this is just the last, gruesome swan song of a morally bankrupt right wing as it exits center stage, the perverse final chorus it sings in its death throes. It is nonetheless hideous to behold. That pretty much captures how I feel about it. Even one of the good things to come from this disasterous war, the fall and capture of Sa

UPDATE: The story is apparently not a hoax. The park website and the park rangers are saying different things . The Kos diarist told me to keep the website secret from the creationists, as it is our "last citadel". (Photo stolen from Travis Swicegood ) I hope this is an exaggeration: HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY — Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). (HT: pinche tejano on Kos ) I took a

...but also a bigger hero than Jesus (but by a lesser margin). How did this happen? At first I thought this was a joke , but it appears to be legit. The AP did a poll asking 1,004 American adults who the biggest villain of 2006 was. Bush topped the list at 25%, handily beating the first runner-up, Osama bin Laden, who only managed to garner 8%. Here's a quote: DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new poll from The Associated Press and AOL News has discovered that Americans are torn in terms of their perception of President George W. Bush and his performance in 2006. When asked to name the past year ’ s biggest villain, Bush was far and away the #1 choice , commanding 25% of the vote, distantly trailed by Osama Bin Laden (8%), Saddam Hussein (6%), President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran (5%), North Korean leader Kim Jong II (2%) and Donald Rumsfeld (2%). Satan only took in 1% of the vote, as did Hugo Chavez, Tom Cruise, Dick Cheney, Hilla

US Troops actually in Iraq don't seem very sanguine about this proposed escalation (HT: Atrios ): In dozens of interviews with soldiers of the Army's 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment as they patrolled the streets of eastern Baghdad, many said the Iraqi capital is embroiled in civil warfare between majority Shiite Muslims and Sunni Arabs that no number of American troops can stop. [...] Spc. Don Roberts, who was stationed in Baghdad in 2004, said the situation had gotten worse because of increasing violence between Shiites and Sunnis. "I don't know what could help at this point," said Roberts, 22, of Paonia, Colo. "What would more guys do? We can't pick sides. It's almost like we have to watch them kill each other, then ask questions."

Jonathan Singer makes a very good point : Yes, the debate on Iraq has shifted. People talk more openly about getting out of there, even the Bush administration doesn't insist we're winning there any more. But despite this shift in debate , there has been no corresponding shift in policy , nor is there any sign of one. All signs point to policy shifting in the opposite direction of the debate: Bush is talking about escalating our committment by throwing more troops into the violence. "Shifting the debate" is all well and good, but to actually change the reality the Democratic congress is going to have to do more: cut off funds, revoke the "use of force" resolution, something with some teeth to it. No bipartisan group of "wise men" is going to sit down with Bush and convince him of the error of his ways. Really, the time for "debate" on the Iraq issue is long over. I want to see the Democrats take some concrete steps. And my support for

The Daily Show tries to help English-language Al-Jazeera adapt to the American market (HT: Clive on Sullivan). A pretty funny spoof on our news style.

Via Feministing , we get a link to a study that makes a rather shocking claim : Parasite turns women into 'sex kittens' The article goes on to explain: "Interestingly, the effect of infection is different between men and women," Dr Boulter writes in the latest issue of Australasian Science magazine. "Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women. "On the other hand, infected women tend to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls. Given that around 40% of the world's population is infected with this ( Toxoplasma gondii ), I suspect that the "sex kitten" transformation does not happen in all cases (unless there are a lot more nymphos out there tha