RIP

Borlaug, father of the green revolution, passed away.

Happy Liberty Day

Or, sad, I guess. Remembering the still uninvestigated attack on the USS Liberty.

Amazing Fact of the Day

The Postmaster General used to be in the line of succession to be President of the US. Apparently as recently as 1970.

Isratine

Holy crap! Qaddafi writes a column in the NY Times about Israel that actually makes a lot of sense! Who knew?

Recommended reading

Mostly from or at antiwar.com. Really a great site.
Raimondo (whom I was remiss in reading for a long stretch; what was I thinking?) had a good one Friday. I especially liked the counterfactual history thought-provoker.
Jimmy Carter's column on the current Gaza...mess.
Ron Paul's statement on the House floor.
And a UC Hastings professor on the question of war crimes.
I think a very important point to keep in mind here (by no means exonerating what the Gazans have done and are doing) is that Israel embargoed Gaza even through the truce period, and that is very much an act of war. I wish I could support either side of this conflict, but I really can't, the more I learn, the more I dislike both sides.

Happy Repeal Day

Today is the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition in the US. Drink up.

Ducking

I know that I will be made fun of for this, but can somebody explain to me why the infamous Willie Horton ad was racist? Watch it here. What's the problem? Are we not allowed to point out criminal behavior if it's done by black men? Or only not allowed to do so when it hurts a Democrat?

Drink up

Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition with a beer. Or with whatever your favorite alcoholic beverage is. Great day.

Irish Car Bombs Away!

Remember to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition today, the 74th anniversary of the 21st amendment.
Also, here's what an Irish Car Bomb is, in case you're unfortunate enough to never have experienced one).

Books I Need to Read

Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. I particularly like this takeaway from it: Not being a tyrant was something he had to work at one day at a time, and writing down these injunctions for himself was part of that effort.

(via MR).

Nada

I don't really have a lot to add to what others are saying today. I do find it odd that there was no indication whatsoever that I saw around NYC that today was the 6th anniversary of the attacks. Not sure what I was expecting, just that there would have been something.
Anyway, I want to keep this a positive blog (mostly), so enjoy this video prank, and go back through the site's archives for the previous pranks in the series if you enjoy it.

Thomas Jefferson Lives

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.