Quick Hits

A lot of little things floating around out there.

• Fox News will host a Democratic Primary debate (undoubtedly they'll call it a "Democrat Party" debate). There's no earthly reason for this; the last time they hosted a Democratic debate, they cut away before the end to go to Bill Bennett slandering all the candidates. The BlogPAC folks are fighting back. Go sign their petition. Also check out Fox Attacks.



• Headline writer's block: Robots could soon be calling the shots? Um, no, they can't. If I have to read one more article where Ray Kurzweil predicts singularity (and the target date always keeps going further and further back) I'm going to shoot myself, or have a robot do it for me.

• More on the changing times in America: an abortion ban bill doesn't make it out of committee in South Dakota, even after it was modified with exceptions for rape and incest and the life of the mother; and the Republican Speaker of the House stops a gay marriage ban bill in committee in WYOMING. The times, they are-a changin', and all that.

• I didn't really emphasize this enough in the blogger breakfast I attended with Sen. Durbin, but Mark Kleiman does, and yes, it was pleasantly surprising.

There we are, sitting around a table, mostly talking Senate inside baseball, which Durbin talks very cogently and entertainingly indeed. A lull falls in the flow of questions, so Durbin is able to bring up a topic on his own initiative.

What he wants to talk about is — no, I wouldn't have gotten it in three guesses, or thirty for that matter — Darfur [...]

The thought that the #2 guy in the Senate, unprompted, sitting around with a bunch of political junkies, wants to talk about how to save the lives of people who aren't going to vote for him or contribute to his campaign is enough to make me teary-eyed with gratitude for the results last November. It sure wouldn't have occurred to Trent Lott.

• I keep forgetting to post about this breathless bit of stupidity, where Chris Hitchens decides that we have to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities before the earth, moves, under their feet:

CH: Well, one thing to think about that is something that hardly ever gets mentioned, which is the following. Ask any seismologist you like. Iran has a huge earthquake coming sometime in the next few years. We don’t know exactly when, of course, but we know, we can study these faults and these fault lines quite well, and Iran is very, very high on the list for a very, very major earthquake. It will be a gigantic tragedy when it hits, by the way, because as someone who’s been in Tehran, I can tell you there isn’t a single building there that’s up to code in any way. It’s a mess of traffic jams and corruption. It’s built on a spider web of faults. I mention this because when it hits, the fact that there’ll be underground nuclear facilities will be not the least of the problem, and no one’s doing enough thinking about this, and I think it should be up to the United States government to say something in public, to the world, and to the Iranian people, saying that’s not an internal affair for you. This is going to concern us all, and we know about seismology, and indeed how to protect against earthquakes.

Because there's nothing that would be better to avert a seismic disaster than a surgical nuclear strike, right?

• Satellite radio companies to merge. Well, I didn't think the business model could make it anyway, so I guess they have a better shot at it together. I still don't understand the market that wants to pay for radio. And I've been aware of XM and Sirius since I visited both facilities for interviews in 2001.

• A second rape alleged in Iraq? You just know there are more than two and that this is a long-simmering issue. Things like these have been since the dawn of war. "Rape and pillage" isn't exactly a new phrase.

• They played a find the Racist College Republican Nutjob contest today on the campus of NYU. OK, actually the College Republicans played a game called "Find the Illegal Immigrant," but the effect was the same.

• Net neutrality ought to be a big thing in 2008. We need to make sure that the Internet is completely free and open. Mark Leno introduced a bill at the state level to ensure Net Neutrality in California. That would be an enormous step forward. Because if that's the standard here, it will almost have to be the standard nationwide.

• Australia going to fluorescents. As I said, great idea, but they need more sizes. Half the lamps I have don't take fluorescent bulbs because they won't fit.

• I actually didn't even notice this until tonight, but who the hell is this guy and how is he a sitting judge in any court in this nation?

• Call off the Eurovision Song Contest. Morrissey will not participate this year. Actually Eurovision is one of the greatest things ever: 24 countries send a band to a giant song-off? Makes American Idol look like some crappy variety hour from the 50s.