OK, let's not

Let’s not mince words here: We now have an entire political party that is not only dedicated to the mediocre. It is dedicated to the nearly deranged.

link: The extreme Republican Party - The Boston Globe

Not really, but still...

Speaking at a massive rally of his so-called 9/12 Project in Washington, D.C., Fox News host Glenn Beck called today for stricter limits on the nation's IQ....

The conservative host proposed capping the nation's IQ "somewhere in the low seventies" and putting tight restrictions on the number of multisyllabic words allowed in the country

link: Andy Borowitz: Glenn Beck Proposes Cap on Nation's IQ

I was wondering when somebody would bring this up

Interestingly, very few of [Congressman Joe "The Liar Guy"] Wilson’s defenders have noted that in the British Parliament, members shout insults all the time. They are probably loath to unfavorably compare Congress with a legislative body that supports inhumane and murderous practices like national health care.

link: Op-Ed Columnist - Parsing Mr. Wilson’s Apology - NYTimes.com

Probably that's it.

WFMT

There's a new version of iTunes out this week (get it) and Chicago's WFMT is in the updated list of classical radio stations. Everybody has their favorite classical radio station, I suppose; FMT is mine. It's a treat to be able to hear it again.

I can't wait until Saturday night when I can listen to the Midnight Special.

County Fair Parade

P1000195, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

The parade that opens the county fair is, by a wide margin, the biggest parade in Greenfield all year.

It ain't easy being a B

We get curbside pickup of recyclables only every second week now. Some blocks are A's, some are B's. We're a B. Our pickup was today, and this is a B week.

The problem is, I put together a big box of paper and cardboard stuff last week and then forgot it was there. So I forgot to put it out this morning, so it didn't get picked up, so it has to stay where it is for two more weeks. By then it will have become such a fixture it will be as good as invisible. It might just sit right there forever, who knows?

Robert Reich on Olympia Snowe's "trigger"

First, it's impossible to design airtight goals for coverage and cost reductions that won't be picked over by five thousand lobbyists and as many lawyers and litigators even if, at the end of the grace period, it's apparent to everyone else that the goals aren't met. Washington is a vast cesspool of well-paid specialists who know how to stop anything resembling a "trigger." Believe me, they will.

Second, any controversial proposal with some powerful support behind it that gets delayed -- for five years or three years or whenever -- is politically dead. Supporters lose interest. Public attention wanders. The media are on to other issues...

link: UNDERNEWS: TRIGGER, SCHMIGGER

Hubble's latest, greatest views

Astronomers unveiled the latest batch of Hubble's greatest hits on Wednesday, all taken since the space telescope was upgraded in May during NASA's final shuttle servicing mission....

link: Hubble’s latest, greatest views revealed - Space- msnbc.com

If you've ever lain on the deck of a sailboat, anchored off some speck of land in the Caribbean, far away from cities and city lights, and gazed into the vastness of space and the sparkling crazy-quilt of celestial bodies -- and I hope you have, because it is one of the greatest pleasures of life and it will fill you with wonder and convince you that there is a Creator, no matter what you want to call him (or her) -- then you'll love these pictures.

-Paul Knue

An evening at the theater

Alberto Gonzales, former President Bush's disgraced attorney general, is not a very popular man these days. He is, however, the subject of a new concert opera called The Gonzales Cantata, which performed recently in Philadelphia.

link: The Raw Story » Terror, torture and tragedy become beautiful in the Alberto Gonzales opera