Unqualified Offerings

By Mona
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We’ve been having quite the contretemps in the thread below about the Internet sting operation that caught Florida Assistant U.S. Attorney, John D.R. Atchison, attempting to procure sex with a 5-year-old from a MI undercover agent. Thomas Knapp argues vehemently in comments that because the child is “imaginary” there [...]

User reviews of music. First, have I confessed to me reborn Yes obsession on the blog? It’s true – happened a couple summers ago. I stress that I did not suddenly develop renewed respect for Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Styx, Kansas, Focus of Pink Floyd. But Yes – man, those mofos were crazy. So [...]

No, really! What the President said about “Mandela” being “dead” was perfectly clear in context. You can agree or disagree with his argument, but the plain vernacular meaning of his statement – any Iraqi equivalent of Nelson Mandela was long since murdered – isn’t the least bit obscure to anyone who actually bothers to use [...]

I’ve barely read any of the following, but they’re on my radar:
* MacLeans’ Patrick Graham on Bush in Iraq
* Robert Waldmann criticizing Graham’s work
* Jeff Taylor on how the FBI blew the chance to stop the atrocities of September 11, 2001
* Daphne Eviater’s brief report on this week’s Blackwater incident will certainly prove informative to [...]

I’ve gotten anal about using Excel’s ROUND function when calculating units or currency – which is to say, in any calculation I make. Just formatting to zero or two digits isn’t good enough any more. Even INT isn’t good enough.
And since I figured I need a link in this item, because it’s a blog post, [...]

By Thoreau
Yesterday was the first day of classes.  I survived.  I survived the lecture, the lab, and the numerous students trying to change around schedules and needing my approval to do so.  Not much to say about it, given the way that first classes go.  I started off my lecture kind of disorganized, but it [...]

Sully:
It’s back to the 1980s. Instead of backing Saddam against Iran, we’re now in danger of backing the Iraqi Sunnis, in league with Egypt and Saudi Arabia … against Iran The border of the conflict has simply moved from the Iraq-Iran border to the middle of Iraq. And this time, we have 160,000 soldiers trapped [...]

Hilzoy of Obsidian Wings: Not George Bush.
Every morning, Josh Bolten, the chief of staff, greets Bush with the same words: “Thank you for the privilege of serving today.””
Stop and think for a moment: if your assistant greeted you every morning with the words “Thank you for the privilege of serving today”, how would you respond? [...]