Gang of Homeless Men Rapes Woman in N.Y.. I know it is a function of the crime, but this Washington Post story reads like tabloid. Quite rightly, the last few paragraphs draw the analogy with the 1989 Central Park jogger attack, soooo… do we have the right suspects? The names in the article are Hispanic…

Maureen Dowd assesses the Frist choice:

He’s a Princeton grad and Harvard med school grad who flies planes and owns a house in Nantucket. He looks like a TV anchor, and has a far smoother bedside manner than Tom DeLay and Dick Armey.

Senator Clinton was hoping that Mr. Rove and Mr. Lott would overreach with a majority Senate, and frighten suburbanites.

But now in 2008, St. Hillary might face Dr. Perfect. NY Times

Interestingly, Dowd seems to feel that Bush and Rove have 2004 sewn up tight, and that attentions should turn to the balance for 2008. In the meanwhile, a CNN poll finds Hillary Clinton would lead the Democratic pack if she chose to make a 2004 White House bid. What a disaster.

is back publishing this week. Scroll down past the December 19th post and all of a sudden you’re back at October 10th and, before that, September 2nd, with little from Dan Hartung by way of explanation or apology beyond his October comment that it is for “personal reasons I won’t discuss here.” Glad to have him back, even though his mission, which I read as a thoughtful exposé of the follies of kneejerk leftism, strangely leaves him sparing the warmongers similar courteous scrutiny.

“A BBC survey has found that a majority of British Muslims consider the war on terror to be a war on Islam. More than half of those surveyed thought that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network should not have been blamed for the 11 September attacks.

Eight percent of respondents thought an attack on Britain would be justified – which caused much bluster on BBC Radio 4’s flagship news programme, Today.” sp!ked

“Charities, cops, government bodies, men of the cloth and economists are falling over themselves to warn us of the financial, familial, emotional, stressful, criminal and diet-related disasters that make up the holidays. From disease-spreading office parties to wife-beating on Boxing Day, from getting robbed on the high street to falling out with your family, Christmas seems to have become one long holiday from hell. Or as a happy-clapper vicar puts it: ‘Over the Christmas period, more people attempt suicide, more families break up, there are more arguments, and people can’t stand it….’

What ever happened to goodwill, good cheer and having a good time? To carefree celebrations with family (sometimes a burden) and friends (often a laugh)? Forget it. Now we have a not-so-festive season that is apparently a straining, stressful and depressing time that can push even the most rational adult over the edge of too much turkey, booze and selection boxes. So let us give praise that there are more than three wise men to help us through the yuletide psychological traumas.” sp!ked

Bans Corporate Involvement in Governing:

“There is now an escalation of events in Pennsylvania regarding corporate personhood.

The elected officials of Porter Township, Pennsylvania, have passed a law declaring that corporations operating in that township may not claim civil and constitutional privileges. A unanimous vote cast on December 9, 2002, evolved out of long-time efforts by citizens and public officials to bar corporations from dumping toxic sludge on township lands.

The new law declares that corporations allowed to do business within Porter Township possess none of the human rights that corporations have been wielding to overrule democratic processes and rule over communities.”

“Of coons, pickaninnies and the gold dust twins: Why do black curios stay chic?” AlterNet

Roadside signs coming to Bay Area listen to car radios, then adjust pitch: ‘The billboard is listening.

In an advertising ploy right out of Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, electronic billboards in the Bay Area and Sacramento are being equipped to profile commuters as they whiz by — and then instantly personalize freeway ads based on the wealth and habits of those drivers.’ San Francisco Chronicle

…and Get a Grand Jury Subpoena?

For a variety of obvious reasons, the federal government today is cracking down on aviation security nationwide. Whether or not the attempt will succeed is anyone’s guess.

I speak from experience.

A few months back, I successfully bid on an E-Bay item, advertised as a CD-ROM B-737 ground-school course. I was sure that Boeing had made such a CD-ROM, but there was no particular indication that such an object would contain sensitive or even proprietary information. The ad described the manual as “siimilar to that used by major airlines.”

So I made the purchase and, in good time, the instructional CD-ROM arrived at my house.

Then, as they say, the manure hit the air compressor. [via Declan McCullagh’s Politech mailing list]