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Oh Yeah, That's Useful

One of my favorite blogs, Second Nature, has a post on what may be the weirdest idea in agriculture (from the Sun-Times):

An Oregon scientist inspired by Homer Simpson has successfully created "tomacco" -- a tomato plant that contains nicotine.

I remember that episode! But, ah, I think Matt Groening was joking around, dude.

Baur grew the plants again, this time hollowing a portion of each out and grafting them together. The plant took form, and after weeks of pruning, he now has a large tobacco root that has sprouted a tomato branch. The branch has yielded one ripe fruit, and tests have shown the leaves contain nicotine -- the fruit will be tested for nicotine today. The scientist says he expects the fruit will contain much higher levels of the addictive ingredient. ... But Baur is having a Dr. Frankenstein moment, noting that nicotine, when ingested orally, can be fatal to humans at levels higher than 150 milligrams. He fears his tomacco plant contains "multiple fatal doses."

"I grew this thing, and then I thought, 'Now what am I going to do with it?'"

Perhaps it would have been better to have thought of that before spending four years attempting to develop the long-awaited "Tomacco", or perhaps better, "Homer's Folly". Steve at Second Nature has a suggestion, but you'll have to check his blog out to see it.

No More Justice Moore (washingtonpost.com)

The Washington Post hs an excellent editorial wrapping up the removal of Justice Moore in Alabama yesterday:

But civil disobedience is not the province of judges, who are not in any event supposed to serve as generals in the culture wars. When the federal courts say what the Constitution means, the duty of every state court judge in the nation is to obey.

This is the crux of the matter, in my mind. As I said before, I wasn't unsympathetic to Justice Moore's rather ostentatious display, nor did I feel that the court order removing the monument (all three tons of it) was critical to the safety of the republic. Once ordered, though, Moore was duty-bound to obey it, and his refusal to do so unequivocally disqualifies him for the bench. That's what lunatic-fringe pundits like Michael Savage don't understand.

Opus Returns! Garbo Speaks!

After 10 years, Berkeley Breathed and Opus return to the comics pages, if only on Sundays (for now).

I know, I know ... Breathed's Bloom County was not just liberal, but leftist, although with healthy doses of common sense and cynicism, but it was still the most intelligent entry in the comics pages in the 80's. In fact, for the first half of its run, it was far more of a social commentary than a political soapbox. Even its quadrennial "presidential campaigns" of Bill and Opus were less about specific policy than the manner in which campaigns were run. It was great fun. If it got strident towards the end of its run, if it introduced stupid characters like that *&^%^%$ cockroach, if it couldn't handle female characters -- we forgave all that.

It was Bloom friggin' County, man. Until it became Outland, which became inexplicable, and then became extinct.

And now, maybe, just maybe ... Breathed can capture that lightning in a bottle again. It's almost enough for me to get a paper subscription again, although I'd be more likely to just sign up for a subscription to Comics.com, where I believe the strip will be available. (Thanks to Alicia at Twilight Cafe for the news!!)

So Many Links, So Little Time

A few thank-yous to some very nice people in the blogosphere today ...

First off, thank you to Venomous Kate at Electric Venom (a daily read for me) for including me on both the Snark Hunt and The Letter Of The Day Is H

Big Trunk over at Power Line included me in today's excellent posts by linking back to my comments about Zell Miller and the end of the civil-rights movement.

Merde in France has been sending readers over to me all day long. If you want a window on Europe, especially France, MiF is a stylish must-read. Sometimes I try reading the posts in French, but my high-school French hasn't been able to keep up ...

Thanks again, folks!

Case Closed: The Most Important Story of the War, So Far

The Senate Intelligence Commitee has evidence, much of it developed during the Clinton administration, that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have been working together for over a decade. I'm not going to excerpt it; read the whole thing.

Then, ask yourself this: When did Rockefeller's staff write that partisan memo, and if it was after October 27, why do you think the Democrats are suddenly desperate to make the Bush administration look like it's lying? Maybe because this information (and more on its way from the Iraqi Intelligence Service's files) will pull the rug out from under anti-war candidates like Howard Dean and John Kerry?

Diversity in Athletics

No matter how good an athlete you were, no matter how important an executive you are -- it's never too late to make a complete ass out of yourself, as former Dodgers and Angels pitcher Bill Singer demonstrated:

New York Met official Bill Singer, a former All-Star pitcher with the Dodgers and Angels, directed racially insensitive remarks at Dodger executive Kim Ng in deriding her Chinese heritage this week, baseball officials who witnessed the incident said Friday.

What were the comments anyway, you ask? Some critique of current Chinese political philosophy? A crack about Confucius? Mocking Mao?

According to witnesses, Singer approached Ng in the bar of the hotel where the meetings occurred. After asking Ng, the highest-ranking Asian American in the major leagues, questions about her background in a sarcastic tone, Singer began speaking nonsensically in mock Chinese before eventually leaving. ... Two officials within earshot described the exchange.

Singer: What are you doing here?

Ng: I'm working.

Singer: What are you doing here?

Ng: I'm working. I'm the Dodger assistant general manager.

Singer: Where are you from?

Ng: I was born in Indiana and grew up in New York.

Singer: Where are you from?

Ng: My family's from China.

Singer: (Nonsensically mock Chinese). What country in China?

Oh, yeah, that's certainly demonstrating maturity, not to mention a stupendous lack of geographical knowledge. (China is a country, one of many in Asia.) Singer won 20 games twice and threw a no-hitter, but apparently his brains are mostly in his pitching arm. His team, the New York Mets, are not amused:

"We learned of the matter recently and have addressed it with Bill Singer directly," Duquette said in a statement read by Horwitz. "While I cannot share the particulars of that discussion with you, suffice it to say, his comments were entirely unacceptable and inconsistent with the values and standards of our organization. We have extended our apologies to Kim Ng and the Dodger organization."

Responding to a reporter's question about Singer's job status, Duquette said that Singer is still "employed by us at the moment. However, this entire matter continues to be under review by the organization. We are reserving judgment on this."

Translation: If this story starts to really embarrass us, we'll dump him like John Rocker. If not, guess who'll be our next liaison to Japan?

CNN.com - Car bombs rock Istanbul - Nov. 15, 2003

Terrorists struck against Jewish synagogues again with car bombs, this time in Istanbul:

At least 15 people were killed and 146 injured Saturday morning when two cars laden with explosives simultaneously detonated near two Jewish synagogues in Istanbul, according to the Turkish interior minister.

Turkish officials believe the explosions -- which took place early Saturday morning on the Jewish Sabbath -- were a coordinated terror attack.

Apparently the dead and injured were passers-by, as the synagogues were mostly empty.

Turkish media reported the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front had claimed responsibility for the attacks, but government officials in Ankara suspect the attacks were carried out by terrorists outside the country, possibly al Qaeda.

If it is al-Qaeda, they seem to be killing more Muslims than anyone else these days. It would appear that their ability to mount attacks has become greatly reduced to the Middle East area. Hopefully, all those idiots who thought that bin Laden was a great Islamic hero are understanding that psychotic fanatics like him strike anywhere, perhaps especially where his own people don't meet his expectations of purity.

And You Thought a 40-Hour Talk Marathon Was Stupid

Do you want to know how ridiculous this Senate nomination debate has become? Then check out the flap over the comments made by Sen. Zell Miller regarding Justice Janice Rogers Brown:

"The Democrats in this chamber refuse to stand and let her do it. They're standing in the doorway, and they've got a sign: Conservative African-American women need not apply. And if you have the temerity to do so your reputation will be shattered and your dignity will be shredded. Gal, you will be lynched," Miller said.

Well, Zell's fellow Democrats were aghast at Zell's choice of analogies, as you might imagine, and all of the rhetorical cannons were fired:

"I was offended. I think it was unfortunate," Daschle said. "I think those within the civil rights leadership who have commented and have asked for an apology are right." ... "Either Senator Miller has conveniently forgotten a frightening period of American history, or he is willfully demeaning all those African-Americans who were hung from trees throughout the period of racial segregation in the South," said Wade Henderson, the director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Oh, the irony! The leadership of the Democrats and the civil rights movement are enraged and demanding a retraction and an apology from a Southern conservative ... because he wants to put an African-American woman on a federal appellate court ... and the civil rights groups and Democratic leadership want her kept off the bench. Combined with the comments from the NAACP about Condoleezza Rice being a murderer, and it's obvious that the civil rights movement is over, done, finished. The vestigial remnants exist only to keep African-Americans in the Democratic political ghetto, and to smear African-Americans who dare to escape from the intellectual plantation. And if you think those analogies are too strong, then all you need to do is look at this cartoon from the Black Commentator that was used in the campaign against Brown by the NAACP:

Image courtesy Power Line, which ran a good post on Brown's nomination and the use of this cartoon.

Update: Strange Women Lying in Ponds has some background on previous use of the word "lynching", where Democrats didn't seem nearly as concerned with historical perspective as they are today. And Liberty Lover has Ted Kennedy calling Justice Brown a Neanderthal; apparently, calling African-Americans cavemen is A-OK with "civil-rights" groups as long as you're a Democrat.

Like I said, the civil-rights movement is officially over. (Update links via Instapundit)

Goodness Gracious: G!

Electric Venom has posted the Letter of the Day, and today has been brought to you by G! Venomous Kate has been kind enough to include a selection by yours truly, regarding Aaron McGruder, but (since you've already read that one, right?) make sure you check out the rest of the collection.

When you're done with that, check out the rest of Kate's blog. It's a daily read for me, while I sit here in Minnesota's cool weather and get jealous of Kate's Hawaiian locale ...

And now for some CQ-G links:

Twilight Café gags on some Vogon poetry. (Hitchhiker fans, rejoice!)

Jon at QandO reminds indignant Deanies that their big moneyman sees dead Germans.

Meanwhile, over at Strange Women Lying in Ponds, Brant is keeping an eye on geriatrics, but ain't too happy with a Googler.

DC at Brainstorming gauges the rationality of the Daily Kos and its readership, and finds it lacking.

Guess that's it for now!

Lileks Is On Fire

Today's Bleat is unbelievably good; go read it now.

Need convincing?

Then Ted Rall wrote a column called “Why We Fight” in the voice of an Iraqi “resistance” fighter. I suppose it’s intended to help us understand the mindset of the enemy. Eh. The French have a saying: his head, it is filled with urine. Or they should have such a saying; I’m sure it would sound elegant and dismissive. These people aren’t the loyal opposition anymore; they’re just the opposition. They may say they love America, but they love some idealized nonexistent America that can never exist as long as there’s individuality and free will. They’re like people who say they love women and beat their wife because she doesn’t look like the Playboy centerfold. I’m sick of the lot of them. As for Rall, who cares about him? He’ll get his reward: the great yawning indifference of history. If people barely remember Kelly and Capp nowadays, what are the chances that they’ll remember someone who appeared to draw with his thumb?

Go. Read. It. Now. (via QandO)