Unqualified Offerings

Now that Julian “Clean” Sanchez has left the Reason nest (popping back only often enough to do laundry and bum money from the ‘rents), his personal blog, Notes from the Lounge, is once again a required daily stop, because that’s where new Julian Sanchez material is reliably to be found. See “Do They Think They’re […]

During the three-month period from Feb. 11 to May 12, weekly attacks by insurgents averaged more than 600, a 13 percent rise over the previous six months and higher than any other time frame detailed in the report.
From Reuters’ account of the latest quarterly report on the Iraqi insurgency. On the good news front, though, […]

The MI-6 Telegram claims that “Saudi fighters” are behind an upsurge in attacks on British troops:
The Saudi influence on terrorism in Shia-dominated Basra has not been previously reported but has caused concern among military commanders because of their training, technology and finance.
Although the majority of Saudi Arabians are Sunni, the minority Shia have taken part […]

The “notes away from a definition” trick is a steal from Patrick Nielsen Hayden, who suggested it as the title of a Samuel R Delany essay. His point is that definitions draw the eye perversely toward edge cases, bright shiny anomalies that distract from the essential commonality that is the real subject of interest. (Delany […]

Hunh. I eventually learned that the jingosphere whipped itself into a frenzy over the Google holiday page that didn’t bark. Turns out they never do Labor Day or May Day either, so now they’re going to have the AFL-CIO and the Comintern on their ass too. I’m personally chapped that they don’t do Armistice Day […]

The Google search results for “liberaltarian” and “liberaltarianism.” Soon to be Topic A here.

Borowitz:
With many Americans unhappy with their current long distance service, the CIA hopes that consumers will decide that having a CIA agent listening in on all of their conversations is a small price to pay for fewer dropped calls, which the CIA’s eavesdropping plan promises.
Dammit Andy, it’s NSA that does electronic surveillance. It’s the little […]

Like you were around to read anything anyway. But it’s been a weekend of yard work, cookouts and jogging - a typical Memorial Day weekend for Americans who don’t own a Harley. In most ways.
Spent the afternoon in Wheaton Regional Park with my second-oldest and third-oldest friend (in terms of acquaintance - they’re not senior […]

We are celebrating UO’s recent relative reduction in blog obscurity by hosting the most massive invasion of comment spam this site has “enjoyed” in months. Feh.

AOL News - Invisibility Cloak May Be Possible
UPDATE: Finnegan draws the obvious conclusion.