this is what it looks like

today's WP has an amazing panoramic photo of a Beirut suburb almost completely levelled by Israeli strikes. click on the picture and drag your mouse to pan to either side.

if we had to live through this every day, i think hurricanes would seem a little less daunting.

jerky lieberman

joe lieberman, running for re-election to the senate in connecticut, has apparently said that he'll run as an independent if he loses to ned lamont, his challenger in the democratic primary. polls show that he's behind lamont in the primary race, but would win (handily) if he ran as an independent in november against both lamont and the republican challenger.

so WHY the hell is he staying on the democratic ticket?? lieberman has been a fake democrat for years; he should just make a clean break with the party now and save some of his integrity. instead, he's trying to push a newcomer out of the race, forcing lamont to do serious fundraising for the primary, instead of conserving resources for the real election--even if it means losing in the primary and then switching parties, which won't win him any votes in the authenticity department. it's a jerk move, and pathetically transparent to boot. joey, you should be ashamed of yourself.

sigh

it's all... just... i can't even... help... no words...

just read this, okay?

all life is sacred... except yours

"Federally-funded 'pregnancy resource centers' are incorrectly telling women that abortion results in an increased risk of breast cancer, infertility and deep psychological trauma... The centers, which are often affiliated with anti-abortion religious groups, have received about $30 million in federal money since 2001."

"Care Net's Molly Ford said the centers criticized by Waxman received federal grants for abstinence-only programs they conduct, but not for pregnancy counseling. 'The funds are kept entirely separate,' she said."

well, molly, that really makes me feel better.

public schools make good

A new study found that, adjusted for background, children in public elementary schools generally outperformed those in private ones. Good news for America, but somehow bad news for President Bush. Funny how that works.

The study was released on Friday by the Education Secretary without any announcement or fanfare. According to the article, the American Federation of Teachers predicted two weeks ago that "the report would be released on a Friday, suggesting that the Bush administration saw it as 'bad news to be buried at the bottom of the news cycle.'" Nice to know that our president wants government services to do badly.

Additionally encouraging was news that conservative Christian academies fared worst of all private schools, especially in math. Perhaps they teach them that math is just a theory and hasn't been proven to work. Everyone knows that this whole "multiplication" thing is all a crock of crap anyway.

triviality

when the world is going to shit, sometimes even we need to take breaks for our brains. what better way than by oohing and ahhing over cute overload? how can you not love these awesome pictures of puppies and kitties? don't they just make you want to make squishy-cheeked baby faces at your monitor? what compels this ridiculous, yet satisfying, behavior?

apparently, warner brothers has provided us with a formula: pear-shaped, no-necked, coy-faced babies and animals. so cute! cootchie cootchie lubby wubbly wittle babies oooh!