It looks like the Iraqi elections yesterday went ok. The triumphalism of the Iraqi hawks is pretty odd, though, considering that thi election is essentially due to Sistani, over the objections of the Bush administration. The day was fairly violent: 44 deaths and 260 attacks. Considering the massive security measures in place, that may not [...]

Baucus speaks out against Bush Social Security plan

WASHINGTON — One reason for a presidential trip to Montana next week could be to turn the heat up under the state’s Democratic senator, Max Baucus, to support a plan to restructure Social Security, political pundits say.
However, during a visit to Helena on Thursday, Baucus said he is [...]

Senator Wants Boxing Gloves on Chickens
OKLAHOMA CITY - A state senator has a plan for saving Oklahoma’s gamefowl industry now that cockfighters are legally prohibited from pitting birds fitted with razor-like spurs.
State Sen. Frank Shurden, a longtime defender of cockfighting, is suggesting that roosters be given little boxing gloves so they can fight without bloodshed. [...]

Media Matters links to a comment in the the WSJ’s Best of the Web Today about one of their items. They don’t take issue with any of it, but Taranto said something blindingly stupid:
MediaMatters.org–tirelessly exposing conservative bias by conservative commentators for over 1/129th of a century–apparently finds fault with one of yesterday’s items:
Responding to a [...]

When you can’t think of anything worth saying, it’s time for random MP3s:
Dark Tranquillity - The Enemy
Anathema - Emotional Winter
Radiohead - Dollars & Cents
Malevolent Creation - Divide and Conquer
Soilwork - Neon Rebels
In Flames - Pallar Anders Visa
No-man - Things I Want To Tell You
Symbiontic - The Night Is My Stage
Soilwork - In a Close Encounter
A [...]

For those of you who live around Bozeman, that billboard on the interstate on the west side of town (I don’t remember how far out exactly) that says:
Life…
What a beautiful choice
Anti-abortion sign? I’ve always been somewhat curious.

For some reason, Town Hall has a column by Charles Colson on the Waxman report on abstinence education. Of course, it’s an attack on the report.
A recent report commissioned by California congressman Henry Waxman (D) casts doubt on the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs. At least, that’s the story promoted by Waxman’s office and by many [...]

There is no crisis.
Social Security is in crisis. The system is going bankrupt. We must act now. Common rhetoric nowadays. Is it true?
Most people know the U.S. is currently building up a Social Security trust fund, used as the baby boomer generation retires. This is projected (by the Social Security Administration) to start in 2018. [...]

The Vern Smalley letter I highlighted the other day has garnered many letters to the Chronicle, all negative. Except for this one today. I think.

Tolerate diversity (The title is an error, it’s different in the paper)
Vern G. Smalley tells it like it is, and the local toleration crowd wants him run out of town (letter, [...]

There was a lecture here last night that I was too lazy to go to, by a guy named Bakari Kitwana about hip-hop and white kids. The Chronicle has an article on it today.
It was Bakari Kitwana’s first day in Montana, a predominantly white state far different from his hometown of New York.
He stood on [...]