Leftovers

What happens when a guy procrastinates? He misses things. This time the guy is me. A story catches my eye, I put it aside to cover later, but it sits. So here are the pieces I let slide...

Cathy Seipp wrote an article on Hollywood politics several months after Sept. 11, 2001. Now it serves as a reminder that Hollywood has somehow managed to become more hypocritical, and as documentation of lines like "I think George Bush is a lesbian! A lesbian in a dress! And high heels!"

"When I signed on to the Hundred Years' War, I thought it would be over in 120, 140 tops. Nobody told me we'd be committing for more than two centuries. So I understand the media's impatience. But you know, what looks bad on Day Four doesn't seem such a big deal when you're in Year 137. If I have a criticism, I'd say the media were over-invested in the decapitation approach. For months they pounded the leadership with state-of-the-art precision-guided surgical strikes--Bush is a moron, Rumsfeld's a madman, Blair's a poodle--assuming that, if you remove the nerve centre, the regime will be unable to function. Ha! If there's one thing we French have come to learn, it's that George W. Bush is perfectly capable of functioning without a brain," said Philip VI of France (according to Mark Steyn).

In April, the Family Research Council declared that women are better sick/cancerous than promiscuous.

SpaceShipOne's designer cheered 'small government' initiatives in 1986: "I want to thank Ronald Reagan for providing and maintaining this environment that was devoid of government regulations that would've made this thing impossible in any other country that I can think of. I only filled out two pieces of paper for the U.S. government. I'm serious. We have an application for air-worthiness and an application for the tail number on the airplane."

From July 5th's New York Times: "The spectacle we have made of confirmation hearings reinforces the public notion that the justices exist to decide cases the way political movements want them to. Liberals think the right started it, and conservatives think the left started it, but the important question is not who started it but who is going to stop it."

Do you believe in ghosts?

Do you believe in idiotarians?

An Instapundit reader tackled the notion that Democratic-leaning states subsidize Republican-leaning states: "Since Social Security is the highest federal expenditure, and Medicare is the third largest, it only makes sense that the feds spend more where there are more retirees. Can the red states help it if the Americans who have enjoyed our country the longest choose to retire in Florida, Arizona, and other red states?"

Another Instapundit reader asks, "If we must have [mandatory sensitivity re-education] for racially/ethnically motivated stupidity, why not mandatory patriotism re-education for anti-American or anti-military stupidity?" (Glenn Reynolds' response: "I'm against both, but the door has certainly been opened. And those who are creeped out more by one or the other might ask themselves why.")

Has anyone heard much from John Bolton at the United Nations? The press gave me the impression that he was going to bulldoze the place by now.

The American Center For Voting Rights issued a report stating that during the 2004 elections, "paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression efforts than their Republican counterparts."

This is like something out of a bad novel.

So is this. What if grasshoppers are only the beginning?

"Prosecuting victimless crimes is a colossal waste of time." Well, duh.

I used to demand boycotts of sweatshop-manufactured goods, until this commentary got me thinking.

John Roberts is likable.

Cindy Sheehan is not. More here, there, this way, that way, and the other way.

America already has Chester Cheetah, but some scientists want us to have real speedy cats on the loose.

Israelis have been giving Jews a tough time.

James Lileks revisited Silent Running.

And since we live in a cynical age, I better close on an ironic note.