*“No turbans in the government”: Pejman notes an encouraging political development among the Shi’a in Iraq in advance of this weekend’s elections.
*I found a few things amusing about last Thursday’s profile of Lileks and his new book in the Washington Post. First, this quote on Lileks’ own home in his youth:
The shag carpet, he lamented during a recent phone interview, was “an unusual brown, where if you ran your hand through it, it turned a light brown. A sofa was added, characterized by an unusually florid design that made the rococo period look like Mondrian. It was beige, white, black, brown, orange and cream, with flowers that would have come to God in a fever dream. As though we understood there was something wrong about it, the pattern was instantly covered with thick, translucent plastic to protect it.”
Second, the phrase “Home Desecrations” – the author couldn’t even get the title of the book right twice in one column.
Third, this:
Despite what seems to be a cult following — he has complained about the cost of buying extra bandwidth to accommodate heavy Web site traffic — he remains well below the mainstream media radar. This is his first big-time interview . . .
Well, under the mainstream media radar except for having a job as a columnist for the largest newspaper in Minnesota, that is.
*AnkleBitingPundits, the former CrushKerry.com, nails Barbara Boxer on misrepresenting the Iraq war resolution. On the other hand, ABP’s speculation that Boxer may be dreaming of a 2008 Presidential run seems overwrought; it’s just as likely she has her eye on other ways of becoming a power broker, perhaps running for governor or vice president or pushing for a leadership role within the Senate.
*Martyrs Home Journal? A women’s magazine from Al Qaeda.
*Jonah Goldberg offers a history lesson and its lessons for today on El Salvador and Iraq.
*“Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle”! (via Dave Barry). I guess Kim doesn’t want anyone to compete with his bouffant.
*Howard Fineman welcomes his new blogging overlords. (via Instapundit) As well he should. Bloggers won’t soon replace the mainstream media’s ability to, say, get news footage from around the globe or entree to world leaders. But the sort of source-free conventional-wisdom-dispensing punditry offered up by Fineman is definitely threatened by the ability of amateurs to do the same.
*Who’s the only major league ballplayer – still active – born in Saigon? Answer here.
*Quote classic: “Bananas would be something normally that would make monkeys go bananas.” Read the whole thing.
*SoundPolitics on military voter problems in Washington.
One of my best friends was born on July 4th, 1973 in Saigon. His family came to America shortly thereafter and he is now living the American dream, wife, kid, house/picket fence. In my overly patriotic sort of way, I always thought it was a great story…
Who the hell calls Danny Graves the ‘Baby-faced Assassin”?!?!?
And they say we don’t have good nick-names anymore…
Good description of Fineman…the sad truth is that Fineman is actually better than most of his colleagues…he at least makes some effort at fairness. Most of the rest of them are Barbara Boxer with a press ID.