Don Knotts Dies at 81
From Stephen Taylor comes some sad news: Don Knotts, TV's Lovable Nerd, Dies at 81 (AP) Don Knotts, who kept generations of TV audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show" and would-be swinger landlord Ralph Furley on "Three's Company," has died. He was 81. Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at a Los Angeles hospital, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 25, 2006 18:49
South Dakota Bans Abortion
South Dakota passes abortion ban (Reuters) SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (Reuters) -- South Dakota became the first U.S. state to pass a law banning abortion in virtually all cases, with the intention of forcing the Supreme Court to reconsider its 1973 decision legalizing the procedure. The law, which would punish doctors who perform the operation with a five-year prison term and a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 22, 2006 22:40
Podcast: Richard Clarke on Terrorism
I just finished listening to an 11/8/05 "interview" with counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke [bio], and he seems more interested in pleasing the audience with one-liners and Bush-bashing (thereby selling books) than he is with giving an honest analysis of what we know and don't know about terrorism. That he completely subscribes to Robert Pape's simplistic, mono-causal notion of suicide ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 14, 2006 22:36
Bill Sammon Moves to Washington Examiner
The Washington Examiner Names Bill Sammon Senior White House Correspondent (DC Examiner) The Washington Examiner today announced the creation of a national news position -- senior White House correspondent -- and filled it with award-winning journalist Bill Sammon. Sammon has been the senior White House correspondent for the Washington Times since 1998, and in that role has traveled extensively throughout the country ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 14, 2006 21:05
Cartoons as Emotional Torture and Intellectual Terrorism
Intellectual Terrorism (Milli Gazette) By Dr. Aslam Abdullah The detestable cartoon portrayals of Muhammad, Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) by Danish and later by Norwegian, French, German and many other European newspapers is nothing less than emotional torture and intellectual terrorism. Uh, no. To equate the publication of mostly innocuous cartoons to torture and terrorism is beyond disingenuous and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 11, 2006 17:52
Moderate Muslims Speak Out
Rusty Shackleford over at The Jawa Report has a facetiously-titled post claiming that moderate Muslims are speaking out against the cartoon jihad, but posts pictures of the tens of thousands of Muslims who are threatening violence over a series of cartoons. His post made me harken back to a column written by Dennis Prager in response to Muslim rioting in France ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 11, 2006 14:43
Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq
Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq (Washington Post) The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 10, 2006 18:18
Carter on Wiretapping
Ok, I know this is two days after the funeral political rally commemorating exploiting the death of Martin Luther King's wife for partisan gain, but I wonder if any of our readers can think of an individual who is less qualified to comment on how the American government should deal with Islamic extremism than former president Jimmy Carter. (Note: the original ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 9, 2006 23:56
Danish Cartoons & Abu Ghraib Photos
If this connection has been made, I havent seen it: there are many people in America and elsewhere in the West are making statements about how the media should self-censor and not publish the Danish cartoons that have sparked several days of Muslim rioting. Thats fine, and their argument isnt completely without merit. However, it seems to me that these ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 8, 2006 21:45
Pass the Prime Rib
Study Finds Low-Fat Diet Won't Stop Cancer or Heart Disease (NY Times) The largest study ever to ask whether a low-fat diet keeps women from getting cancer or heart disease has found that the diet had no effect. The $415 million federal study involved nearly 49,000 women aged 50 to 79 who were followed for eight years. In the end, those assigned ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 7, 2006 22:10
Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley Pose Naked
Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley pose naked for Vanity Fair (AFP) NEW YORK (AFP) -- Two of Tinseltown's brightest young stars, Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson, bare all in the latest Vanity Fair, posing nude for the cover of the glossy magazine's annual Hollywood issue. The two actresses were talked into the photo shoot by fashion designer Tom Ford, the former Gucci creative ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 7, 2006 21:55
Ironic Headline
Record Sales of Sleeping Pills Are Causing Worries (NY Times) Isn't the exact opposite true as well?Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 7, 2006 20:31
The Academic Meritocracy
A good friend of mine recently found out that he didn't get the tenure-track job he was up for, and was told in confidence that the university's president personally intervened to force the department to hire a woman over my obviously more qualified friend (she's a grad student who hasn't finished her dissertation; he has a top-tier Ph.D., a book ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 6, 2006 23:14
The Academic Job Market
Here's another shining example of what some of us face each day: Western State College of Colorado invites applicants for a full-time temporary teaching position in sociology and political science beginning in August of 2006. Teaching responsibilities include courses in sociological theory, criminal justice, and introductory courses in American, comparative and/or international relations. Responsibilities are to teach 12 credits per semester, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 3, 2006 19:57
Inside the Beltway Math
Budget Cuts Pass By a Slim Margin (WaPo; front page, above the fold) The sub-head is a punch line come to life: "Poor, Elderly and Students to Feel Pinch" The House yesterday narrowly approved a contentious budget-cutting package that would save nearly $40 billion over five years by imposing substantial changes on programs including Medicaid, welfare, child support and student lending. With its ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 2, 2006 20:12
