Osama's Niece a relative? How I wish.

Meet Osama Bin Laden's wayward niece, Wafah Dufour, no appearing in GQ magazine, accourting to Reuters.

Read more here.

Mercury Myths, for example...

One team of researchers compared 21 specimens of Atlantic Ocean blue hake preserved during the 1880s with 66 similar fish caught in the 1970s. They found no change at all in the concentration of mercury.In another study, Princeton scientists compared samples of yellowfin tuna from 1971 with samples caught in 1998. They expected to find a mercury increase of between 9 and 26 percent, but they found a small decline instead.And in a unique experiment, curators of the Smithsonian Institution tested tuna samples that were archived between 1878 and 1909, and compared them with similar fish tissue from 1971 and 1993. They found significantly less mercury in the more recently caught fish. In some cases, the difference was more than 50 percent.

Granted, I don't know who the first "team of researchers" is, but the others are credible. The site's good, check it out at at www.fishscam.com/mercur...

Fish Scam

More evidence of pseudo-science alarmism in the environmental/animal rights/ State of Fear movement. Most telling is the mis/disinformation about mercury levels in seafood.

I'm sensing a move back to common sense, along with a healthy skepticism of social fearmongering. Hope it lasts.

Read more at www.fishscam.com/

Best Political Blog (Conservative)

Even on vacation, Andrew is the best.

Read more at www.andrewsullivan.com/

Rummy's in, Tookie's out.

I guess the rumor about Rumsfeld getting dumped for Lieberman was just that: a rumor. But Arnold decided Tookie should pay the consequences. I am against the death penalty, but it is the law of the land in California, and Gov. S. can't flip the penalties EVERY time, and especially when Williams is definitely guilty. His Nobel nominations almost make me dislike him more, but setting that aside, I think it's too bad he didn't discover ways to help kids before he decided to commit murder.

Re: Capital Punishment

Here's why I'm against it.

1. Innocent people can't come back from the dead. By this I mean, if some poor schlep is wrongfully convicted and executed, then it's discovered he's innocent, there's no going back to square one. At least with a life sentence you can let the guy go with a BIG apology.
2. I honestly believe that life in a box is a worse punishment than a quiet good-night. I don't think it's a deterrent to crime, either. MAYBE it would be if we really tried people quickly and bumped them off without the long-drawn-out appeals process, but I dunno. If you're going to kill someone, they deserve a few appeals, so I'm back to the main point. Bad boy in a box is the worse punishment.
   

Shot-in-the-foot Dept. II

Dean's words are being played on Al Jazeera. Whaddya know? John Batchelor (WABC Radio) is in the Middle East right now and is hearing Dean being played repeatedly as the voice of the people in the United States. The only person dumber than Dean in the Democratic party at this point is Nancy Pelosi. The party is getting a dose of what happens when politics is encouraged over common sense, the safety of our soldiers and our security at home. Some bozo takes it too far. Dean will probably end up out of a job over this stupid remark, but I'd LOVE for him to stay in and say even more stupid stuff. His spin today was that it was "a little out of context." Nah. It's anti-American and oblivious to right and wrong no matter how you cut it. This guy nearly had the Democratic nomination. The party picked Kerry instead to avoid him. Send up a flare, I think the ship went down. More proof this party cannot be trusted with national security.

"White Flag" ad takes the offensive against Dems defeatism

See the ad here.

Twist of Fate Dept.

According to Andrew, Rumsfeld may be on the way out. Maybe this is a good thing. Replacing him with Lieberman, as his story suggests, is perhaps even better. I have always had mixed feelings about Joe -- mostly because of his flip to the left as Gore's running mate, (oh yeah, and the Alf's-human-dad voice.) But his recent WSJ piece was cogent and rightly nailed the left for playing politics with national security. Maybe his presence will help. I hope he gets the job in any case, if Rumsfeld's out.

The bad part is, there's a lot we don't know. Has this been in the works for a while? Is Rumsfeld really on the way out and exactly why? I think he's become a political liability, but why? What does the Bush White House really think of this guy? Is he becoming a fall guy for the torture story? Or is any of this happening at all? Stay tuned.

Shot-in-the-foot Dept.

Seen on Drudge, I think this, Dean: US Won't Win in Iraq, could very well be a great strategy for the Democrats. Win elections by touting failure. Victory by Defeat. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Perfect for the party that has been wrong about almost every aspect of the war.