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That, Ladies and Gentleman, as Sure as I Am Sitting Here, Is an Out-and-Out One Hundred Percent Lie
This is almost unfathomable. I'll make no judgement beyond that and just point you to the right direction. On Monday night, David Letterman played some goofy footage of a kid being real bored while standing behind the President during a speech. On Tuesday night, Letterman reported back on the response.
(Much thanks to Overspun for the clips.)
UPDATE: "The White House, trying to get out in front of the Yawning Boy story, is now in charge of media access to the young man who was seen on David Letterman's show this week yawning his way through one of President Bush's less robust speeches."
Tonight on the Daily Show
Sweet Jennifer "the Patriot Act makes me cry" Beals.
UPDATE: It was spectacularly boring.
Al Franken on Grown-Up Love
The New York Times recently hosted 10 QUESTIONS FOR. . . Al Franken. This answer's so beautiful, I may learn to love listening to the radio.
Q. 9. Why do liberals like you, Al Franken, hate America?
A. Liberals like me love America. We just love America in a different way. You love America like a 4-year-old loves his mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world. That's why we liberals want America to do the right thing. We know America is the hope of the world, and we love it and want it to do well. We also want it to do good.
Latest on Rwanda
From the Post:
Ever since an airplane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down late on the night of April 6, 1994, the mystery behind the incident has been this Central African country's equivalent of the JFK assassination. Hutus blamed Tutsis, Tutsis blamed Hutus. But at the time, no one was interested in talking. Answering the question is essential to unraveling the history of this impoverished country as it tries to recover from one of the world's bloodiest genocides. The death of Rwanda's president, Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, launched the 100-day slaughter of nearly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
But a recent investigation by a French judge offers a controversial explanation for the killing. It accuses Rwanda's current president, Paul Kagame, of giving the command to shoot down the plane.
Monday Morning Quote
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
- Ecclesiastes 9:10
Giddy-Up
Paul Walden by way of the Gadflyer:
Laying the foundation for future victories will require money, energy, thought and patience. But if they want to help make our nation a truer reflection of the noble ideals on which it was founded, progressives will have to strap on the chain mail, jump on their horses, and ride into battle. If they do it right, the first years of the 21st century may be remembered as the end of the age of the wimpy liberal – and the beginning of the age of the progressive warrior.
This May Well Be My New Favorite Sentence
From the History of Brawy Paper Towels and Napkins (thanks to Lindsey F. for identifying the importance of this timeline.):
The forest background on the packaging, which extends on both sides of the Brawny man with 20+ trees, is reduced and the Brawny man lays down his peavey to make the print décor more visible.
Ah, Sweet Boston
From MSNBC:
Some Boston Red Sox fans have been up in arms that opening day falls on Good Friday, and Catholics attending the game will be forbidden from eating hot dogs. Last week, the Boston Archdiocese denied fans’ requests for a dispensation from the church, which said wanting a dog with their beers was too weak an excuse to ignore the no-meat rule.
Monday Morning Quote
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.
- John F. Kennedy
The Rebel Anthropologist
From the New Yorker article on Franz Boas:
A law passed only three years earlier [1921] had reduced admissions to three per cent of every "nation" in the U.S. population, based on the census of 1910. The new bill reduced that figure to two per cent, and even this small number was limited to nations already present in 1890, a date chosen to keep the most despised immigrants out. The Johnson Immigration Bill ... provoked a bitter House debate, with cries of "wops" and "dagos" crossing with charges of "un-American" discrimination... The bill passed in the House by a vote of 326-71 and in the Senate by 62-6; it was signed into law by President Coolidge with the words "American must be kept American." As a result, all immigration from Japan was ended. (Chinese had been excluded since 1882.) Immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe was reduced to a fraction of its former level; Jewish immigration was cut nearly to zero, with no allowances made for political refugees. Source: The Measure of America by Claudia Roth Pierpont, The New Yorker (Mar. 8, 2004). [Article not available online. (Article title corrected by Nancy, 03.08.04)]
The Senate
The United States Senate is a funny affair. Each state of the union gets two Senators, no matter if that state is California -- with a population of 34 million people -- or Wyoming with just 500,000. And no matter how many voters and votes in your state, you need to gather if not a majority than at least a bucketload of them to get sent to Washington. And 13% of the population of the United States is of African descent; New York, the state with the highest black population is still at less than 20%. As a representative body, it makes sense there is not one black Senator in the United States Senate today. By the numbers, it makes sense that there have been only four black United States Senators ever and two in last 125 years. But I still find it amazing.
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