Who Is That Bearded Man?

Radovan Karadzic was caught and it looks like he'll be sent to the Hague. Apparently he's been keeping busy practicing alternative medicine and generally being a hippy with a heart of genocide.

This really has more to do with the fact that the Serbian government has recently changed hands, and enough time has passed that Serbian nationalism has waned politically. It's been pretty common knowledge that he was in Serbia somewhere and being protected by political sympathizers.

Sesame Street Still Cool

Feist helps the kids count to four.


Update: For those unfamiliar with the original you can see it here.

Chart Of The Week

Transportation spending versus Highway spending, via Matt Yglesias.

Big And Smart

Via Marginal Revolution comes this graphic:



This shows the average results by position of the "Wonderlic Test," sort of a modified IQ test. As you can see, the smartest guys on the field are also the largest (here you can see the average weight of the OL on the 2003 Detroit Lions was over 300 lbs). All three line positions come in just over the QB.

See more details here.

Tony Snow Dies

Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow died of cancer at 53 yesterday. I'm not sure I would agree with the President that he was "one of our nation's finest writers and commentators" but he was actually a pretty decent press secretary (given the rather severe limitations such a post entails).

Thoughts go out to his family.

We're #1!

Americans have achieved a great milestone. Our American youth may not perform particularly well in international measures of science and math, but they have surpassed their peers in one important measure. Americans are most likely to have used marijuana.

YEAH! USA! USA! USA!

This probably also means we're winning the war against drugs via the same logic that allows us to conclude that deadly car bombings are signs we're winning the war on terror.

Yes It Really Is The Oldest Profession

Scientists at Yale have been busy degrading the morals of capuchin monkeys, teaching them to use filthy lucre. After they learned that they could "buy" food and other treats with the "money" they promptly discovered prostitution.

And some people say we're not related to apes...

Great Scott!

Kobe Bryant is the new pitch man for Hyperdunk Nikes, the shoes which were featured in "Back to the Future II." So if Back to the Future was a documentary, where's my Mr. Fusion and hoverboard?

Teh Gay Is A Threat To Marriage

Well, it's a threat to THIS guy's marriage.

Troy King, the anti-gay anti-sex toy attorney general of Alabama, was apparently caught by his wife in bed with his not-so anti-gay assistant. It's not very surprising that some of the most virulently homophobic people are, in reality, using their public statements to chastise their secret desires (see Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, etc) but it's always nice to see them get their comeuppance.

RIP Democracy

The Senate passed the amendment to FISA retroactively saying that illegal spying is fine if the government tells you so. So now Nixon's famous quote from the Frost/Nixon interviews has been written into law by a Democratic Congress:

FROST: So what in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

FROST: By definition.

NIXON: Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position.

There was a time in this country where this quote was held up as the antithesis of the American democratic system of a nation of laws. It was not just wrong, it was abhorrent and unpatriotic.

Now, it's the official government policy. So depressing.