Well, that's a bit troubling.

Immense ice shelf breaks off in Canadian Arctic...

... or it broke off over a year ago, but it took people a while to figure it out, so it's just making the news today.
I would add a rib about global warming deniers, but they've had it rough enough lately...

Our Ford: We could have done much worse (and we have.)

Season's Greetings, my modest but loyal readership (and if there are only two or three of you, you're all the more appreciated.)
Apologies for the brief interruption in my prolific blogging habits... I had been soaking up some sun and rain in the balmy subtropics (as long as it's balmy, I can deal with a little rain) with my shackmate and his family... we had a great time. Now it's back to the hustle and bustle of the chilly Mid-Atlantic Megapolis.
I heard the news of Gerald Ford's death from the condo yesterday.
The more I learn of the guy, the more likable he seems, despite having been, you know, a Republican, and making a coupla bad hiring decisions that will go unmentioned, despite their far-reaching consequences.
Referred to as an "accidental president" because of his appointments (rather than elections) to both the VP and the top post, he actually wasn't all that physically clumsy, although his face is probably less recognizable to citizens my age and younger than Chevy Chase's slapstick impersonation of him.
Here's Bob Woodward's write-up from the Washington Post.

Highly Recommended: Babel

Best new film I've seen in quite a while: good writing, good acting, good directing. The flaws were so few I could count them on one hand (and did) but I think, despite the thematic similarities to "Crash," this is (or should be, IMO) this year's "Brokeback Mountain" as far as a film to get excited about.

Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Main Entry: Ba·bel
Pronunciation: 'bA-b&l, 'ba-
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Hebrew BAbhel, from Akkadian bAb-ilu gate of god
1 : a city in Shinar where the building of a tower is held in Genesis to have been halted by the confusion of tongues
2 often not capitalized a : a confusion of sounds or voices b : a scene of noise or confusion

Finally, a productive use of PowerPoint...

I wish somebody in the Pentagon would take a look at this.

Martha Raddatz Discusses Now-Deceased Army Captain's Stick-Figure Demonstration on How to Win Al Anbar

Senate History Lesson

Courtesy of Wonkette and the Washington Post, (in order of journalistic gravitas) on another time when the Senate majority hung in the balance...

Get well soon, Tim.

Goodbye (party of) Lincoln!

Per Jon Stewart's suggestion last night, an elephant whittled out of chocolate, in honor of outgoing Republican (to the extent that a Yankee can be either outgoing or, apparently, Republican) Senator Lincoln Chafee...

chocolate elephant sculpture
This CGI one is pretty cool, too...

The Kiesling letter

This is a bit dated, as John Kiesling turned in his resignation to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in February of 2003, but it was brought to my attention (I keep up with things more nowadays than I did three years ago) when quoted in this morning's National Press Club conference of the Council on American-Islamic Relations re: Arab and Muslim views of the Iraq Study Group report.

It definitely bears repeating.

Apparently Kiesling has a book out, published in August.

Here's where I part ways with Michael Weinstein...

I wouldn't give a single drop of blood to protect anyone's right to believe such a thing. But then I'm a pacifist. I'm fairly sure I'm grateful for those who would.

But of course, his main point is taken. There is scary stuff happening at the Pentagon, religious freedom-wise. I wish I had a reference link, but the Web is strangely silent on the matter Weinstein discussed in a news conference today.

"If they want to believe that Anne Frank, as I've been told by numerous people in the Air Force, is burning eternally in hell, that that little 13-year-old girl who walked into a hermetically sealed gas chamber when the Zyklon-B gas came out and turned her little 13-year-old body into a purple and blue polka-dotted corpse -- if they want to believe she's burning in hell, I would give my last drop of blood to support that view completely. That's their constitutional right..."

-- Michael Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Is this really the best we can do?

A chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who doesn't know that Al Qaeda is Sunni (y'know, Osama, Saudi Arabia?) and Hezbollah is Shiite (y'know, like Iran?)?!

But I guess the bar has already been set so low...

Holiday Wish List: Talking Dr. Laura Doll

Because it's not enough to listen to her show faithfully every day (yes, you do detect sarcasm.) I must carry around a beaming, Barbie-sized replica to enlighten my day with chestnuts like:

"[Don't] argue with me. It makes me testy."
"[Is] this the hill you want to die on?"
"I am my kid's mom."
and
"Now, go do the right thing."
Click to listen.

Be the first one in Washington to read it all the way through!

Heh heh... OK, I haven't read it yet, either, and it's very unlikely I'll ever read it cover to cover, although I definitely plan to pick up a copy (preferably from the library ;)
But hopefully some others (a key few in particular) are more ambitious (and don't have two books to read and critique by next Thursday for their lit class...)
The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward - A New Approach

Now it's personal.

Maybe congressional oversight is overrated after all.
Sure, I was a bit giddy the day the Dems took back both houses, hoping for a Congress that did something different next year, a "do-something" Congress, if you will. Be careful what you wish for.
For I, like the gaggle Steny Hoyer briefed today about the upcoming schedule for the 110th Congress, being in the communications/media industry, and one who deals in particular with Things Political, am personally affected by his admirable decision to upgrade Congress to a 5-day work week.
I know, Tuesday through Thursday is a "do-nothing" schedule. But darn it, I liked those slow-news-day Mondays.
Finally, something I can agree with House 'pubs about.