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October 31, 2005
mushroom flavored ice cream
is actually extremely good. On Saturday morning at the Ferry building, the cashier at the mushroom store was giving out scoops of his homemade mushroom ice cream. He was trying to sell the mushrooms, which went for some absurd price ($20/oz?), but the ice cream itself was unfortunately not for sale. Alas.
Posted by onion slayer at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
miers withdraws nomination
So Harriet Miers has elected to withdraw her nomination.
At first I thought: Well, I guess that this was the most graceful, face-saving course of action the administration could have taken. Failed confirmation hearings would have been a colossal embarassment; Bush's point-blank withdrawal of his nominee would have been embarrassing too. Her own withdrawal, as transparently orchestrated as it may be, was probably the smartest thing Bush & Co. could have arranged.
And then I read Miers's withdrawal letter.
She writes that she is "concerned that the confirmation process presents a burden for the White House that is not in the best interests of the country."
Why is that, exactly? Apparently it's because members of the Senate have "indicated their intention to seek documents about [her] service in the White House in order to judge whether to support [her]." This intention, to Miers, was unacceptable because "the strength and independence of the three branches of government are critical to the continued success of this great Nation." And the senators' unwelcome efforts would undermine the fragile independence of the Executive.
She does not touch, of course, on any of the actual reasons why her nomination has been so controversial. She in fact goes out of her way to defensively declare her career "sufficient evidence" for her fitness to serve on the Court. And finally, she adds that she shares Bush's commitment to appointing conservative judges.
Just when I was starting to feel kind of sorry for the woman.
And now Bush has to nominate someone else. I think we can probably expect someone very, reliably conservative.
Posted by onion slayer at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2005
some awful good writing
I think I may have to start reading more Sci-Fi:
`Its voice was soft, gentle -- but repugnant. Like the breath of a diseased infant. It was a sound with halitosis.' -- John Shirley, In Darkness Waiting
`He shuddered, awash in adrenaline, his sphincter pulling unpleasantly tight as he recognized his own youthful scrawl on the outside tab. ... and he felt an ache, a curse of time racing across the ridge of his knuckles.' -- Derek Van Arman, Just Killing Time
`... Caymann released a horrible scream into the night air, a painful, deafening and terrifying roar that sounded like a lion whose heart was impaled.' -- Derek Van Arman, ibid
`She knew how to embroider and milk a cow.' -- Connie Willis, Doomsday Book
`A few hours had passed since they had been pulled away from the moon. A few hours and millions of miles. The moon was no longer visible, not even as a star. The whole thing was so crazy, weird and far-out. It was as though they were floating in a giant vacuum.' -- Sara Cavanaugh, A Woman in Space
`Now Danelle's big blue eyes looked thoughtfully inward.' -- Robert Jordan, The Fires of Heaven
`His eyes could have cut through rock mountains.' -- Sam Merwin Jr, The Time Shifters
`Though she was many years the younger, she seemed by her manner to be the older of the pair -- that is, if age could be measured by suspicion.' -- Duncan McGeary, Snowcastles
`Palmer's screams became fainter as the slugs ate their way into him, a number burrowing up through his torn genitals, using his anus as a means of access in their search for the softer, more succulent parts of his body.' -- Shaun Hutson, Slugs
`It was an Everest of understatement.' -- Robert Charles Wilson, The Harvest
`The wagon lurched forward like an armadillo trying to mate with a very fast duck.' -- James P Silke, Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer, Vol II Lords of Destruction
`Now that important Achilles heel was closed.' -- Geoffrey Jenkins, Firepoint
`His lips formed the words, but it was his heart which spoke them.' -- Bernard King, Starkadder
`Their tongues twisted around each other, strong as pythons. She had never been afraid of snakes.' -- Marge Piercy, Body of Glass
(Compiled by Thog.)
Posted by onion slayer at 12:54 PM | Comments (1)
October 13, 2005
harriet miers: a nonpartisan anthology
Surely there are anthologies like this all over the Internet. I add another.
Against:
Ann Coulter--
Despite the astonishing fact that Miers was THE FIRST WOMAN to head the Texas Bar Association -- a dumping ground for losers, by the way -- Miers has not had the sort of legal career that shouts out "Supreme Court material"! That is, unless you think any female who manages to pass the bar exam has achieved a feat of unparalleled brilliance for her gender.
And also--
However nice, helpful, prompt and tidy she is, Harriet Miers isn't qualified to play a Supreme Court justice on "The West Wing," let alone to be a real one.
George Will--
It is not important that she be confirmed because there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence, or that she possesses talents commensurate with the Supreme Court's tasks. The president's "argument" for her amounts to: Trust me. There is no reason to, for several reasons.
He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution. Few presidents acquire such abilities in the course of their prepresidential careers, and this president, particularly, is not disposed to such reflections.
Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that Miers' nomination resulted from the president's careful consultation with people capable of such judgments. If 100 such people had been asked to list 100 individuals who have given evidence of the reflectiveness and excellence requisite in a justice, Miers' name probably would not have appeared in any of the 10,000 places on those lists.
Politically Inclined Heretic (on Will's commentary)--
Mr. Bush unsophisticated? Without any appreciation for nuance? Wow. Liberals have been saying that for years! And of course will take some pleasure in quoting from a well-respected conservative on this matter. We kind of knew it when he said Jesus was his favorite philosopher.Jesus may have been a good moralist but he was not a philosopher, and his decision to use the Bible as his favorite book to read underscored to us Mr. Bush's fundamental problem -- that he lacks the intellectual curiousity or rigor needed for the presidency. He has the decisiveness that Kerry lacked but the intellectual rigor, no, he just did not have that.
Judge Robert Bork--
BORK: ...I think it’s a disaster on every level.
CARLSON: Why? Explain the levels on which it’s a disaster.
BORK: Well, the first one is, that this is a woman who’s undoubtedly as wonderful a person as they say she is, but so far as anyone can tell she has no experience with constitutional law whatever. Now it’s a little late to develop a constitutional philosophy or begin to work it out when you’re on the court already. So that--I’m afraid she’s likely to be influenced by factors, such as personal sympathies and so forth, that she shouldn’t be influenced by. I don’t expect that she can be, as the president says, a great justice.
Charles Krauthammer--
If Harriet Miers were not a crony of the president of the United States, her nomination to the Supreme Court would be a joke, as it would have occurred to no one else to nominate her.
Michelle Malkin, on her blog--
It's not just that Miers has zero judicial experience. It's that she's so transparently a crony/"diversity" pick while so many other vastly more qualified and impressive candidates went to waste. If this is President Bush's bright idea to buck up his sagging popularity--among conservatives as well as the nation at large--one wonders whom he would have picked in rosier times. Shudder.
David Frum, in his NRO Diary--
This is no time for the president to indulge his loyalty to his friends. All this year, the president has been testing the limits of his support. Well we are at the limit now, and anything less than a superb choice for the O'Connor vacancy will overstep it.
Bill Kristol--
George W. Bush's nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court was at best an error, at worst a disaster.
David Brooks--
Of all the words written about Harriet Miers, none are more disturbing than the ones she wrote herself...
Of course, we have to make allowances for the fact that the first job of any association president is to not offend her members. Still, nothing excuses sentences like this:
"More and more, the intractable problems in our society have one answer: broad-based intolerance of unacceptable conditions and a commitment by many to fix problems."
Or this: "We must end collective acceptance of inappropriate conduct and increase education in professionalism."
Or this: "When consensus of diverse leadership can be achieved on issues of importance, the greatest impact can be achieved."
I don't know if by mere quotation I can fully convey the relentless march of vapid abstractions that mark Miers's prose. Nearly every idea is vague and depersonalized. Nearly every debatable point is elided.
Maureen Dowd--
W. is asking for a triple leap of faith. He has faith in Ms. Miers as his lawyer and as a woman who shares his faith. And we're expected to have faith in his faith and her faith, and her opinions that derive from her faith that could change the balance of the court and affect women's rights for the next generation.
In favor:
Kevin McCullough, conservative talk show host--
(via Politically Inclined Heretic)
I am now ready to fully support Miers. She stands for the protection of life -- born and pre-born...And she stands for the authority of the text of the Constitution," McCullough added. "In other words she is as strong a Constructionist as she is a Biblical believer. She treats both texts with respect that realizes that text holds an objective authoritative standard that should not 'grow' or 'change' over time.
Dick Cheney to Rush Limbaugh--
(via Politically Inclined Heretic)
I'm confident that she has a conservative judicial philosophy that you will be comfortable with, Rush. You'll be proud of Harriet's record. Trust me.
James Dobson--
The burden of this decision about this nominee weighs me down in ways that I don't recall experiencing before. Because if I make a mistake here, and others make a mistake, what we're talking about are babies. We're talking about millions of babies. If this nominee is the wrong person, I mean, for 20 or 30 years it will reverberate and will change this nation forever. I recognize the gravity of that, and I am saying to our listeners now what I have said to the Lord, and Shirley [Dobson's wife] and I prayed about this early this morning. I said, "...You know that what I feel now and what I think is right may be dead wrong. You know that I could get out of your will and do something to hurt the cause of Christ, and I would rather sacrifice my life than do that. And I think I know what you want me to say in regard to this nominee. I think I have your mind. But I'm not sure...
So I think maybe I ought to take the rest of the broadcast today, or at least a portion of it, to tell our listeners the rationale. Now, I can't reveal it all, because I do know things that, you know, I'm privy to that I can't describe because of confidentiality. And there are some things I can't go into...
She has been a believer in Jesus Christ since the late 1970s. I know the individual who led her to the Lord. I know the church that she goes to. I know it's very conservative church. I know that she is a tithe-paying member of that church. I know that she has deep convictions about things. And I have talked at length to people that know her and have known her for a long time. Some of them have been a close personal friend of hers for 25 years. And I trust these people because I know them. I know who they are, and I know their character, and I know what they stand for, and I know their love for the Lord. And they have said to me, "This is a good woman who will do the right thing when the chips are down. She will not be a disappointment, and you cannot go wrong by seeing her in one of the most powerful positions in this country" -- that being the justice who replaces Sandra Day O'Connor on the court.
Bush--
I’ve known her long enough to know she’s not going to change, that 20 years from now she will be the same person with the same judicial philosophy she has today...She’ll have more experience. She’ll have been a judge, but nevertheless the philosophy won’t change, and that’s important to me.
I know her character. She’s a woman of principle and deep conviction. She shares my philosophy that judges should strictly interpret the laws and the Constitution of the United States, and not legislate from the bench.
And this--
I've known Harriet for more than a decade. I know her heart, I know her character. I know that Harriet's mother is proud of her today, and I know her father would be proud of her, too.
In sum, I leave you with this:
Posted by onion slayer at 05:00 PM | Comments (1)
October 10, 2005
snake bursts after gobbling gator
"The predators died in the clash."
Posted by onion slayer at 05:23 PM | Comments (7793)
October 05, 2005
set-up
This is too good not to post.
Yes--Condi's sexuality isn't much of a secret to the Stanford community, but there's remarkably little to be found on it on the Internet.
Then there was the following exchange between Rice and Fox News reporter James Rosen, part of an interview conducted on September 27 in Port-au-Prince, and then posted on the State Department website:
MR. ROSEN: I think it's outrageous, frankly. All right. I close with a gift for you. You met this person once, I believe, but you really, I think, ought to know each other because this woman is, I think you'll have an interest in knowing her. She is one of our FOX News anchors in New York. Her name is Lauren Green. She is brilliant, she's beautiful, she's African American, she's single and she's a concert pianist in her spare time.SECRETARY RICE: My goodness.
MR. ROSEN: And she asked me to give you her CD and I promised her that I would.
SECRETARY RICE: That's perfect.
MR. ROSEN: And here's her doing a number of different classical pieces.
SECRETARY RICE: Well, that's special.
MR. ROSEN: So there you have it.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank her very much and I look forward to seeing her sometime.
MR. ROSEN: All right. She's going to want to hear from you.
SECRETARY RICE: And maybe even playing dual piano sometime.
MR. ROSEN: That would be great. Thank you, as always.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.
Honestly: is there more than one way to interpret this conversation?
Lauren Green, by the way, was Miss Minnesota, 1984:
(via Sappho.)
Posted by onion slayer at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2005
self-amputation
I realize it's old news, but I find myself thinking about this story alarmingly often. The 1993 tale of the fisherman who hacked off his own leg, closed off his arteries with a fishing kit, crawled the half a mile to his car, and drove off for help, is even madder.
Posted by onion slayer at 02:21 PM | Comments (2)
from the vault
I don't know why I thought of this all of a sudden.
There was a girl named Kaitlin in my 10th grade English class who was obsessively fond of country music and horses. Cowgirl boots, long straw-blond hair, Lisa Frank folders, everything you would expect. I think she ended up going to Tennessee for college, and voluntarily at that.
Anyway, we were once assigned a "beliefs" project in which we were each to choose three controversial issues and argue one side or another in brief persuasive essays. (Two of mine argued for the legalization of euthanasia and against the existence of God, swiftly endearing me to my Mormon teacher.)
After the teacher explained the assignment to the class, Kaitlin raised her hand. Mrs. H. called on her.
"Um, can I write mine against drunk driving?" There were some titters.
"Kaitlin," expained the teacher, "it needs to be a controversial issue. No one is going to argue in favor of drunk driving."
"But I'm really against drunk driving," Kaitlin persisted. "Can I argue that drunk driving is not just bad but really really bad?"
I was sitting at her table, and felt kind of embarrassed on her behalf. The tittering was spreading.
Mrs. H. was losing her patience. "No," she said. "No, you can't. I don't think you understand the purpose of the assignment. You are supposed to use persuasive writing to persuade the reader to change her mind about a controversial issue. Tell me--whose mind would you be changing?"
Kaitlin was getting hysterical. "People drink and drive all the time!" she insisted.
"Yes, people do it," the teacher said, increasingly annoyed, "but they probably wouldn't argue that drunk driving is a good thing."
"But my belief is stronger than other people's beliefs!"
And then, carried away by an angry, impatient mob, she was killed. Alas.
The End.
Posted by onion slayer at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)