Well, I made it into the Nick Denton Legion of Justice. The guy has excellent taste, although he's missing some obvious ones like Charles Kuffner and Matthew Yglesias (just for example). But, two quick points:

The idea that conservative bloggers have the ability (or the will) to keep the business within the circle is ludicrous. I'm linked and cited by people who disagree with the majority of what I write. So are the rest of the Legion of Justice. They might call me a "salty nut," but I'm glad for the hits.

Also: if there really are liberal webloggers out there who want to post about politics, but refrain from doing so because they're afraid that some conservative stranger, somewhere, might say something nasty about them... they're doing the right thing. I don't want them polluting my beloved internet.

There's a missile-defense test tonight. They're going to say that it was successful. Take it with a massive, massive grain of salt. They have been incredibly dishonest in the past, gaming the system, heating the targets and putting GPS trackers on them, to cheat an accurate test. I see no reason to believe that they won't keep doing it.

In reports about a highly sophisticated sensor used in the first test of the missile-defense program - a technology similar to one now designed for the vital task of distinguishing decoys from warheads - contractors described its performance as ''excellent'' and the overall test as a ''success.'' The team directed by two MIT scientists, which evaluated the contractors' reports of the test, pronounced them ''basically sound.'' And officials in the Missile Defense Agency called the first test of the technology in space ''highly successful.''

Yet the review by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that crucial elements of the 1997 test failed - prompting investigators to raise questions about the oversight of a program that has already cost billions of dollars and could, if the Bush administration has its way, ultimately cost taxpayers as much as $238 billion, according to a recent estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.

''The data are garbage - they had to use all these software shenanigans and throw out two-thirds of the data to make it look like a success,'' said a congressional source close to the GAO investigation. ''Up to now, there has been no independent verification of the contractors' claims. This pulls out the rug from those calling the test a success. By any definition, there's no way to call it a success.''

Harry Browne has finally driven Stephen Green away from the Libertarian Party (his permalinks aren't working, but search for "Harry Browne") with this horrible little screed: This just in: Bin Laden wins Afghan war.

We've been reading the homosexual recruitment rulebook that they apparently use in seminaries, and we've picked up a few techniques. We'll have some missionaries at his door within 24 hours with some literature and cookies.

"Warballs", from the peerless British humor magazine Private Eye:

Gravesham Council [in Kent] is blaming the 11 September terrorist attacks on America for a huge 24.5 per cent hike in council tax… Leader of the Labour group councillor Rosemary Leadley said: ‘There is no doubt the events of 11 September have had a significant effect on our budget.’” -- Gravesham News Shopper, 20 February.

“The horrific terrorist attacks of 11 September in the US have really rammed home the importance of the task of storing and retrieving information. With information becoming the essential element of every business it has never been more important to examine your company’s storage needs and capacity and study whether you are getting value for money. Book your 1-2-1 appointments for impartial advice with members of the Fibre Channel Industry Association Europe at networks telecom europe 2002 NOW!” -- Email circular from Jane Murphy, “portfolio director” of networks telecom.

“Remember 11 September. Considering what a cataclysm the events of 11 September were it is surprising that the philatelic fallout has been so sparse…” -- Email from stamp dealers Sandafayre.

By the way, I notice that there's a section called "Dumb America", with stupid American answers to "The Weakest Link" questions. Don't get upset, they usually have "Dumb Britain" there, with stupid British answers to one of the 167 British game shows. It looks like they're just mixing it up a little.

Mac Thomason has some sane thoughts about foreign aid, and he mentions that the U.S. a huge spender in indirect foreign aid.

My homie Hernando de Soto, in his book, "The Mystery of Capital", mentions at one point that the amount of money that is sent home from people who immigrate from the Third World to the First World absolutely swamps the amount that is given as foreign aid. I can't remember the number (I'll look it up when I get home), but I think that foreign aid amounts to less than 5% of the money that immigrants send home.

Incidentally, you can get a perfectly good summary of "The Mystery of Capital" here. Here's a good quote, while we're on the subject:

I will also show, with the help of facts and figures that my research team and I have collected, block by block and farm by farm in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, that most of the poor already possess the assets they need to make a success of capitalism. Even in the poorest countries, the poor save. The value of savings among the poor is, in fact, immense—forty times all the foreign aid received throughout the world since 1945. In Egypt, for instance, the wealth that the poor have accumulated is worth fifty-five times as much as the sum of all direct foreign investment ever recorded there, including the Suez Canal and the Aswan Dam. In Haiti, the poorest nation in Latin America, the total assets of the poor are more than one hundred fifty times greater than all the foreign investment received since Haiti's independence from France in 1804. If the United States were to hike its foreign-aid budget to the level recommended by the United Nations—0.7 percent of national income—it would take the richest country on earth more than 150 years to transfer to the world's poor resources equal to those they already possess.

But they hold these resources in defective forms: houses built on land whose ownership rights are not adequately recorded, unincorporated businesses with undefined liability, industries located where financiers and investors cannot see them. Because the rights to these possessions are not adequately documented, these assets cannot readily be turned into capital, cannot be traded outside of narrow local circles where people know and trust each other, cannot be used as collateral for a loan, and cannot be used as a share against an investment.

And here's a paper that looks like it's purporting to debunk DeSoto, which I haven't read yet. I'll have to check it out this weekend.

I could swear that I had Off the Kuff and What She Really Thinks in my links, but I just checked and they weren't there. I'm sorry, Miss Stampley. (I am for real.)

The House Judiciary committee rejects 1 in 43 Bush appointees for a federal position. "(Pickering) had been reversed 26 times by the appeals court. Some of his rulings were overturned as being flatly wrong."

This is after years and years of obstruction from the same committee when it came to Clinton's nominations. "During the last six years of the Clinton administration, this committee did not report out a single judge to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals," said Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.).

In 1997, Clinton nominated Jorge Rangel, an attorney from Corpus Christi, Texas, to the 5th Circuit. He withdrew in frustration two years later. Clinton then chose Enrique Moreno, a Harvard-educated lawyer from El Paso. He also nominated H. Alston Johnson, a Louisiana law professor for the same court.

But the Republicans refused to allow a hearing for any of those nominees.

In response, Trent Lott goes nuts, threatens to retaliate. You know, there are a lot of conservative ideas that make a lot of sense. But then you're supposed to vote for these assholes...

This is a little old, but it's a good story. A gay high-ranking executive at Enron was able to pull his domestic partner into the lucrative "outside" limited partnerships that caused so much trouble. Straight executives couldn't do the same thing with their legally-recognized wives or in-laws. As a result, they're not just rich, but super-duper rich.

The spousal relationship of Kopper and Dodson is not recognized by law. So Kopper had no problems allowing his partner to take over ownership interests in several limited partnerships, including two called Sonr #1 and Sonr #2, even as Kopper was managing the transactions for Enron. By contrast, when Fastow proposed to Skilling that he be allowed to bring his wife's relatives in on the deals, Skilling claims he told the financial officer "that would be a bad idea."...

"It's certainly an unintended consequence of government trying to control who can be in a legally recognized relationship with whom," one gay activist says, savoring the dark humor of the situation.

"Maybe this will convince some people legalized gay marriage isn't such a bad idea after all."

Shamed is making sense.

Alan Keyes is not.

Blogger conservative:1
TV conservative: 0

Detailed article about how the Church of Scientology were the original (?) Googlebombers via Dane Carlson.

This is hard to read at times. A letter from a terror widow about how the Ted Rall cartoon made her feel.

The always-impressive Charles Dodgson has a brilliant post on Borg Radio, Clear Channel. You will be assimilated. Check this out:

What does synergy mean in the radio business? A national brand, of almost fifty different radio stations all calling themselves KISS-FM, like KSAS-FM in Des Moines. Even though the station is owned by a huge conglomerate, they're still involved in the community. On President's Day, the station's intern, "Smooch" is doing a live appearance, joshing with the DJ, "Cabana Boy Geoff" Alan, who's telling the crowd how bad Smooch's dance moves looked last Saturday night at the Big Easy, a hot Des Moines night spot.

The sound of that banter is the sound of synergy. Smooch is actually acting out his half of the conversation; "Cabana Boy Geoff" doesn't work holidays. He recorded his half of the conversation ahead of time.

In fact, "Cabana Boy Geoff" has never been to the Big Easy. He's never been to Des Moines; he works out of San Diego, and improvises scripts based on bits of local color mailed in by the Des Moines station manager. The phone calls from listeners played by the station are actually San Diego phone calls with the local color edited out; people who dial the real Des Moines radio station get a busy signal unless, for some strange reason, a member of its skeleton staff is in the office. Nor does the station have its own playlist --- that's done out of a central office. The Des Moines station manager mails in suggestions, which are rarely heeded.

Two stories: My fiancee used to write for a bunch of the Clear Channel stations in Houston. All the stations are in the same building, and each station has a small staff, but they're basically interchangeable and share a lot of resources. Every once in a while, people would often get transferred from one station to another, which is pretty funny if you're paying attention. You might hear some guy on the country station enthusing for Travis Tritt, who was making wacky phone calls to unsuspecting housewives on the Morning Zoo just last week. All he did was move upstairs.

Also, there's an anecdote about payola at the beginning of the book "Hit Men". Pink Floyd was going on tour to support "The Wall," but the tour was so elaborate and expensive that it was only playing in three cities: London, Berlin, and Los Angeles. "The Wall" was the number-one album in the country, and "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1" was the top single in the country. The label tried an experiment and didn't pay for "independent promotion" in LA. They wanted to see if the local stations would play the song without being bribed, just because the biggest band in the world was playing one of the biggest concerts in history in their city off of their number #1 album.

As it turns out, the stations didn't play it. Under intense pressure from the band, they finally paid the independent promoters, and "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1" was the number one song in LA before the end of the day. Eventually, the free-market geniuses at the labels decided to continue to pay for independent promotion. They would just make it a "recoupable" expense; that is, yet another expense that the labels claim back out of artists' royalties.

Instapundit recommends Brink Lindsey's new blog, so who am I to resist? I suspect that I'll be checking it out in the future, because (a) he actually knows something besides ideology, as his steel post shows, and (b) he's not a crazy anarchist, as this post shows:

A vibrant and prosperous market economy requires more than simply scrapping bad government policies; it also requires the building of good institutions for protecting persons and property -- a job that must be done by the state if it's to be done properly. (Read Hernando de Soto's wonderful book "The Mystery of Capital" for an eye-opening statement of this case.) Anarcho-libertarian types should visit places like Dos Rios and then see if they still believe that the best government is no government.

All I can do is second the recommendation for "The Mystery of Capital". It should be the foundation of a genuine economic foreign policy for liberals and "compassionate conservatives" alike.

Madre dios. "The Army is hunting for a new military uniform that can make soldiers nearly invisible, grant superhuman strength and provide instant medical care."

Have you ever seen the choose-your-own-adventure, "The Time Gremlin"? You'll love it.

Today is not a good day for me to be heavily blogging. However, it looks like every day is a good day for Dane Carlson. Each of these pages is just one day. Wow.

He's got a bunch of good stuff up, not least this link that reveals that Isaac Asimov died from complications due to AIDS, which he had acquired from a blood transfusion in 1983. I had no idea. Another good link is the 100 dumbest moments in e-business history.

(Thanks to Matthew Yglesias for the link. Now this is blogrolling.)

Kausfiles has a good point about this ridiculous American Prospect article- it blames unedited bloggers for the harsh assault on Doris Kearns Goodwin, but it doesn't actually make the case that any bloggers were involved. It would make about as much sense to blame violent video games or those wastrel jitterbuggers.

Amygdala had two particularly good posts recently:

1. the oft-overlooked point that the bureacracy that just sent the flight schools the visa OK for Mohammed Atta is a private company, not a government bureaucracy, and

2. a sensible takedown of Michael Moore that criticizes him for being a preening fool who grabs victim status like a gold medal, rather than for being rich or fat.

Who the hell has a bucket of urine ready for an emergency? What were they saving it for?

This is pretty funny. E-bay safely, kids. (link via metafilter)

The bill to require higher fuel-efficiency standards in automobiles by 2015 failed in the Senate, 62-38. Hey, why should we worry about the effect of continuing to funnel billions to people that hate us? What's the worst that could happen?

Did you ever read A Prayer For Owen Meany? There's a section where the main characters are talking about the Vietnam War protestors, and Owen Meany says that they'll all go away when the draft is dropped. He was, of course, absolutely correct. I have a sick feeling sometimes that the near-universal support for the war will whittle away as soon as anything is asked of us. The Senate obviously thought that we couldn't be asked to drive more efficient cars over the course of the next 13 years. I'm disappointed.

I happened upon an archive page for Electrolite when I searched for "blogger 'Michael Moore' millionaire", and it is chock full of good stuff. Check it out.

I especially like this rant about Trent Lott, this link to Scientology fan fiction, and this:

now, im not saying that we didnt want to fight you because we're so peaceful and holy ourselves,
we're not.

last year several highschool kids took their parents' guns to school and they killed a bunch of their fellow students and their teachers

we have a president who put criminals to death when he was governor.

we have people who drown their kids in cars, who throw their babies in garbage cans, we even had this guy who ate the people he murdered.

and as for holy, i doubt that 2 people in 10 could name
all twelve of Jesus's diciples
we may not be holy, but except for the assholes,
we're not assholes

our president is not our hero

and if your heroes are cold blooded dirty killers

then we are going to have to figure out a lot, together, over the next few years

cuz i, for one, just dont get it. [...]

when you pray today

pray that you'll find a better hero

someone who believes in peace and love and understanding

someone who knows that holy and war dont go together

someone who doesnt scheme to murder innocent civilians

someone who wont lie to you or put you in danger.

perhaps he'll end up a hero of ours as well.

we sure need one.

Is it just me, or do certain conservatives have a healthy appetite for class warfare, as long as the wealthy person in question is a “limousine liberal”?

It pains me to defend Michael Moore, who over the years has become a prime example of a Loony Leftist. But why do many conservatives, who usually celebrate success, attack him for his wealth? We’re supposed to try to get rich. It makes the world go round. You may not like his politics, but Michael Moore earned his money fair and square. He works hard to make independent films that people want to see, TV shows that people want to watch, and write books that people want to read. He saw a niche and filled it. He’s rich because the system works!

I haven’t read or seen everything the guy has produced, but I’ve never seen anything to make me think that he’s the anti-capitalist that many critics assume he must be. He spends a lot of energy criticizing companies that abuse workers, corporate welfare, and globalization. He wants more restrictions and regulations on business than his critics do. Fine. But that's not the same thing as being anti-capitalist, or anti-rich.

Nonetheless, for some people it's not OK to be both rich and liberal. Here’s some of Tim Blair’s recent descriptions of Michael Moore:

…millionaire film maker and television star
…he lives in Manhattan's Upper West Side
…his $1.27 million apartment is mere blocks from the finest clothing stores on earth
…Moore himself is extremely wealthy
…Michael Moore is a fucking millionaire!

And he approvingly quotes a few columnists who say:

I wonder if all the people cheering his anti-establishment rhetoric know that this 'man of the people' only flies first class, stays in the very best hotels and demands that all bookstores he visits have plenty of cold Evian water waiting for him

…nothing can stop the forward accumulation of Moore's wealth.

From Instapundit:

OVERWEIGHT, BADLY-DRESSED millionaire Michael Moore

From Damian Penny:

…he lives in one of New York's richest neighbourhoods and sends his kid to private school

Now, if I started picking on some conservative freelancer because he was conservative and not rich, (I could make up some term like “Corolla Conservative”) it would be ridiculous, right? So what is the complaint here? Should I keep a close eye on my net worth, to make sure that I’m conservative by the time it hits $1,000,000?

Welcome Busy, Busy, Busy to the links. I really like his header: "A view from the radical center."

UPDATE: Whoops, "radial center." Sorry.

Balloon Juice has a link to the Cantor Fitzgerald's heart-rending memorial to each of their lost employees. It's incredible. Every person who died that day left such a hole. Sometimes, when I think about it too much, it's more than I can stand.

ExpatPundit has an incredible story of an actual Montana militia whose plan to trigger a world revolution by killing 26 local officials went wrong somehow:

"The logic of their plan, if you can call it logic, was that by killing local law enforcement people, the state of Montana would have no choice but to send in the National Guard," Sheriff [James] Dupont said. "Then they hoped to wipe out the National Guard. And then they hoped that NATO troops would be sent in and that would trigger an all-out revolution."

The sheriff and Detective [Bruce] Parish rolled their eyes incredulously as they explained what Project 7 hoped to accomplish. They suggested that [militia leader] Mr. Burgert was a blowhard who had bitten off more than he could chew.

Tom Daschle is the most powerful Democrat in Washington right now, so a dumb-ass ethanol bill like this reflects badly on us. Nobody likes ethanol except for corn farmers; it's far more expensive than gasoline, and takes a massive tax subsidy to be produced. But he's trying to force California to use 500 million gallons of it.

Dammit, Tom, you're a national figure now. This is exactly the kind of peg that could be used to discredit the whole issue of raising automobile mileage standards. I could write the attack ad myself, and I'm not a genius politicial strategist.

Andrea Yates has been found guilty of capital murder. The jury rejected her insanity plea. I have a hard time imagining that she'll get anything but the death penalty.

I don’t take this poll very seriously, and neither should anyone else. But it should be said that the Democratic party would be much better off if Hillary Clinton did not run for president in 2004, 2008, or any other year beginning in “2”. It’s not her fault, but she’s one of the most asymmetrically polarizing figures in politics; she inspires absolute hatred in her enemies, without inspiring nearly as much love in her allies. Her resume in public service is pretty light, and public perceptions about her personality aren’t exactly an asset. Let her represent New York, but Hillary would lose a national election to anyone with an (R) after his or her name.

China 'shocked' to be on U.S. nuke hitlist

Next: Charlie Sheen "shocked" to find himself in hooker's Rolodex. Whatever, China.

Electrolite has linked to a thoughtful, serious piece called "Can There Be A Decent Left?" from Dissent magazine. Obviously, I hope so, and I hope to play a small part in it.

One of the smartest things that the hard right has done, long before September 11, is wrap itself in patriotism. Many on the hard right want to change our country radically, as much or more than those on the hard left do. But they manage not to sound like they loathe the US and their fellow Americans. In contrast, a small but noisy fraction of the left absolutely revels in their own purity and superiority. It is such an easy position to ridicule and rally against. I personally find right-wing attacks on "liberal elites" to be pretty laughable, considering that these "elites" have about as much influence as a Montana militiaman. But if I was a Republican strategist, I'd probably do the same thing. I'm not a fan of Michael Moore, but he at least seems to understand this. His whole schtick is basically the "People vs. the Powerful", and the baseball cap and so on shows that he considers himself one of us, not an internal exile.

Anyway, it's a good article. Go read it.

If you've never taken the time to watch John Ashcroft sing the song he wrote, "Let the Eagle Soar", do yourself a favor and click here. The Onion could work for years and never top that.

This is a story I wouldn't have believed without a link, so here you go:

DeLay seemed to feel the issue (avoiding service in Vietnam) applied personally to him, and perhaps it did. He had graduated from the University of Houston at the height of the Vietnam conflict in 1970, but chose to enlist in the war on cockroaches, fleas and termites as the owner of an exterminator business, rather than going off to battle against the Vietcong.

He and Quayle, DeLay explained to the assembled media in New Orleans, were victims of an unusual phenomenon back in the days of the undeclared Southeast Asian war. So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself. Satisfied with the pronouncement, which dumbfounded more than a few of his listeners who had lived the sixties, DeLay marched off to the convention.

"Who was that idiot?" asked a TV reporter who arrived at the end of the media show. When he was told the name, it drew a blank. DeLay at that time was a national nobody, and his claim that blacks and browns crowded him and other good conservatives out of Vietnam seemed so outlandish and self-serving that no one bothered to file a news report on the congressman's remarks.

UPDATE: The Bull Moose has a good bit about Tom DeLay's disgusting act this weekend:

"DELAY: "Well, the last I remember, Senator John Kerry was against the war in Vietnam even though he served in it, and went around the country undermining the military overseas in trying to fight this war and giving aid to those that were trying to run the war from Washington, D.C."

Maybe the better part of valor is for DeLay to remain silent about questioning the patriotic credentials of a decorated veteran who served in a war he avoided. One can differ with Kerry's activities in the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Perhaps, Kerry should not have played the Vietnam card. But, Kerry certainly cannot be confused with Hanoi Jane Fonda."

Nick Denton asks:

"Where are the liberal weblogs? Okay, let me rephrase that: where are the well-written liberal weblogs?"

Jeez, me and Mac are going to be crying ourselves to sleep on two humungous pillows.

Avram Grumer at Pigs and Fishes has an inspired take on left and right. I really like the end of it:

I’ve been seeing a lot of naïve neocons writing from a perspective of total unfamiliarity with liberalism. Look at Kevin Holtsberry’s take on Kurtz and Glastris, or David Carr’s post on Libertarian Samizdata about attending the Big Brother Awards ceremony. Neither of these guys seems to have a fraction of a clue that leftists, especially those on the extreme left, see themselves as harsh critics of the government. This is, of course, also true on the right — the abovementioned Grover Norquist once said his goal was to shrink government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub”. And moderates on both sides see government as a tool, and seek to expand the parts they’re fond of and shrink those they dislike. My over-simplified soundbite take on it is that both the right and the left want to move power from the government to the people, but the right makes an exception for the military while the left doesn’t see corporations as people.

Anyway, so neocons (especially libertarians) like to define themselves as anti-government, and therefore (according to the basic laws of association and opposition by which the lowest levels of the human mind operate, and I’m going to have to write an entry on that one of these days) their opponents must necessarily be pro-government. That’s why they use the phrase “anti-American” to describe the kneejerk response many extremists on the left had to the war in Afghanistan — the neocons can’t consciously recognize anti-government sentiments in their opponents, so they frame it as a form of negative nationalism.

Right on.

And another thing: If you ask me, the most important issue in the world today is not steel tariffs, not when life begins, and not even the war on terrorism. These are all important issues, and I have absolutely no intention to disparage debate about them.

But I would be so happy to see more attention given to dysentery. Every year, 4.6 million children in the Third World under age five die of dehydration from dysentery. Unlike AIDS, dysentery can be treated cheaply and simply by giving the child a simple solution of sugar and salts called Oral Rehydration Therapy. One packet of solution costs eight cents.

I don’t have a donations box. If you would ever considered giving me a dollar or two, give it to UNICEF and tell me about it. Free trade will help the Third World in the medium and long run, but UNICEF can help them right now.

I've tried all day to write a "six months later" post, but everything came out overcooked and cliched. Instead, I'm just going to borrow a page from BartCop and list a 1 for every person who lost their life to terrorism on September 11. The police and firefighters are bold.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Jeff Jarvis's wonderful post has singlehandledly resurrected my faith in blogging. Thank you, Jeff.

Mac Thomason asks:

If Andersen were your corporate accountant, wouldn't you have a fair amount of protection now from prosecution? Everyone knows that Andersen was corrupt/incompetent. If a corporation's accounting were messed up somehow, the officers could just blame Andersen, no matter whose fault it really was.

He's probably right; somebody's certainly going to try it, anyway. But if you buy Thomason's argument, if you bought Anderson's services at this point, wouldn't that be criminal neglect? I'll bet that Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is getting a hell of a deal.

Day when I was chillin' in Kentucky Fried Chicken. Just mindin' my business, eatin' food and finger lickin'. This dude walked in lookin' strange and kind of funny; went up to the front with a menu and his money.

He didn't walk straight, kind of side to side. He asked this old lady,

"Yo, yo, um...is this Kentucky Fried?"

The lady said "Yeah", smiled and he smiled back. He gave a quarter and his order, small fries, Big Mac.

You be illin'.