The New York Times' Go To Guy For Right-Wing Pseudo Science On Race And Gender

Today marks the first official appearance of Steve Sailer, writer for the white nationalist webrag, VDare, in an John Tierney op-ed column. Tierney has cited his bigoted pal in the pages of the Times before, but not in his op-ed column.

Tierney's column is filled with "evolutionary psychology" mumbo-jumbo purporting to show that golf is a manifestation of mens' hunting instinct. (Next column: "Aiming At The Urinal Cake Reveals Nature's Plan For Male Dominance"). Perhaps the similarities between Tierney's column and this three-year old Sailer column reveal the natural male instinct to recycle crap.

The web version of Tierney's column approvingly links to another Sailer piece containing this profound analysis: "On the other hand, the Ladies Professional Golf Association's Nabisco Championship in Palm Springs has become one of the largest annual lesbian get-togethers in the United States, but, as Camille Paglia has noted, lesbians tend not to be interested in the classic visual arts, and, indeed, are often resentful of the prestige of Dead White European Male artists." Do Tierney and the Times endorse this bigotry?

You can read more about John Tierney's best buddy here and here.

"Two years ago an artwork featuring Kylie Minogue's bottom was pulled from the Royal Academy's summer show after the singer's lawyers complained." -- bbc.co.uk

Just Us Sunday

(This is the post the computer ate. Seems to me it was funnier than this.)

As last Sunday approached, I was at a hypothetical crossroads. On the one hand, I could have spent an afternoon in the company of Southern California's finest bloggers at a fete hosted by Jane Hamsher of firedoglake and Stephen Anderson of SteveAudio. On the other hand, there was the once in a lifetime opportunity to liveblog Justice Sunday II: The Constitution's Dead. Torn between two such attractive choices, I spent the day curled up in bed, writhing and in a fetal position, like Clarence Thomas. Just an ordinary Sunday as Casa Ailes, really.

Kobepalooza, the Southern California event to which I was actually invited, did in fact feature the best SoCal polibloggers (except Digby). Jane Hamsher advises that I, or more accurately, the thing you're reading, also was a topic of conversation, in regard to my/its on-again off-again status on the Huffington Post blogroll.

Arianna Huffington told Jane that when my blog appeared on her blogroll the first day, the other Ailes called her asked why she was making fun of him. Apparently the other Ailes thought he was so important -- or so deserving of ridicule -- that someone created over two years of blog posts just to twit him. That, or he didn't actually bother to read this blog.

Arianna (may I call her that?) had no idea what was going on, she didn't create the blogroll or know anything about this blog. She thought someone in the office was playing a joke. So they just took the link down and eventually everything got straightened out.

The bottom line: Neither of them knew who the hell I was.

Not necessarily a bad thing.

And, in the end, my reinstatement on the blogroll was a pyrrhic victory. Just this week, the Huffington Post replaced its blogroll with banner ads and relegated the blogroll to a barely noticeable drop-down menu link.

Ah, well.

Grand Old Police Blotter: House Arrest Edition

Accused Republican war profiteer Randall "Duke" Cunningham will have to bunk with Mitchell Wade for a while, if the Feds have their way:

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Attorney's Office has initiated attempts to seize the home of U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, alleging that the California Republican's $3.5 million estate was purchased with bribe money, court records show.

Cunningham, 63, an eight-term congressman, has been under investigation by federal prosecutors, the Internal Revenue Service and the criminal investigative arm of the Pentagon over his ties to a defense contractor who purchased another home of his in late 2003, then sold it for a loss.

The sealed court documents, filed on July 21 and first reported by the San Diego Union Tribune, give notice of a civil lawsuit seeking title to the Rancho Santa Fe, California, property, owned by Cunningham and his wife, Nancy.

The court filing, which was made a week after Cunningham announced he would not seek re-election in 2006, said that the congressman's house "constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 201."

That federal law relates to bribery and conflicts of interest by government officials.

The only growing profession in the Bush economy is Republican criminal defense attorney.

Grand Old Police Blotter: Terrorists for Bush Edition

Let them get away with it once, they'll try it again and again. Bush supporters impersonating Secret Service officers to intimidate law-abiding citizens.

John Joseph Blaisdell was hanging around the camp between about midnight Wednesday and 6:30 a.m. Thursday, telling people that he was with the Secret Service detail for Jeb Bush, President Bush's brother and governor of Florida, according to protester Ann Wright.

Chief Deputy Randy Plemons of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office said that at about 6:30 a.m. protesters asked the Alameda, Calif. resident to produce a badge. At that point, Blaisdell became irritated and threatened to harm one of the protesters, Plemons said.

Plemons indicated that Blaisdell proceeded to make hand gestures indicating that he had a weapon before running up the dead-end Morgan Road, away from the protest camp.

Sheriff's deputies were alerted and Blaisdell was apprehended a short distance up the road without incident.

Blaisdell was charged with impersonating a peace officer, a Class C felony; a Class C misdemeanor threat; and making a terroristic threat, a Class B misdemeanor. He remained in the McLennan County Jail Thursday night, awaiting arraignment.

It seems selective enforcement of the law is emboldening the wingnuts. The Jeb Bush tie is a nice touch. Did Jebby ever hold those "pro-life" nuts responsible for their criminal trespass at Ms. Schiavo's hospice?

Grand Old Police Blotter: Lord of The Cells Edition

Bad news for Lord" Conrad Black, ex-Canuck and neo-con press baron:

A longtime business partner of the former press baron Conrad M. Black was indicted on fraud charges yesterday and - in what may be bad news for Lord Black - has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation.

The former partner, F. David Radler, is the former publisher of The Chicago Sun-Times, and co-founded Hollinger International Inc. with Lord Black....

....Legal specialists said Mr. Radler's deal was ominous for Lord Black.

"Cooperation by Mr. Radler can only spell trouble for Mr. Black," said Robert A. Mintz, a former federal prosecutor who is now a criminal defense lawyer. "In this particular case, the road to cooperation leads in only one direction."

...

The charges relate to payments totaling more than $32 million made to executives and parent companies of Hollinger International, which were ultimately controlled by Lord Black. Mr. Radler was the second-biggest shareholder of the companies. Prosecutors say that when Hollinger sold dozens of newspapers several years ago, the defendants disguised payments to them as part of agreements not to compete with the papers. But prosecutors said the payments were bonuses that should have been taxed.

...

Since then, a blizzard of civil actions has engulfed the company and its big-name roster of current and former directors - including former Gov. James Thompson of Illinois; former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger; a senior Reagan administration official, Richard N. Perle; and Marie-Josée Kravis, the wife of the financier Henry R. Kravis.

...

In past interviews and court filings, Mr. Black, 60, said he looked forward to vindicating himself in court. He argued that any money he took out of the company was authorized by the company's board. He also said he was blindsided by "corporate governance terrorists" who hijacked his company for their own gain.

"Are there dangerous men in federal prison, Frum?"

"Up to a point, Lord Black."

Do Tread On Me

Mister Ed used to hate flag desecration. Weeks ago, he hated it so much that he made shit up about the desecration of flags just to show how much he hated flag desecration.

Today, the aftermath of a flag desecration was photographed and made widely available on the 'net, and the perpetrator of the desecration was identified. This time, Mister Ed managed to suppress his phony outrage.

Why the silence, Mister Ed?

From DAVID EHRENSTEIN: Lucy Dalglish to Newsday: "I know what's bothering [Judith Miller] more than anything is she cannot read the Internet. ... People are telling her about some allegations about her that are in the blogosphere and she has no way to fight back."

Now please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Judy Miller write for a publication called the New York Times? And wouldn't the New York Times be more than glad to print absolutely anything she had to say about her current situation, helpfully supplying Miller with hard copy of what any number of different parties in greater blogistan have written? Better get back to complaining about that foam mattress. That's the best way to play the victim card, dear.

Disabled and Dangerous Wingnuts

Like, I said -- IT'S REGNERY. Why would any sane person trust Regnery?

Here's a flashback to Weldon's fellow Regnery fraud, Michelle Malkin, confessing her unfamiliarity with the truth:

Accordingly, I am retracting my claim that Herzig-Yoshinaga "surreptitiously shared confidential documents with" Irons. I have made a note of this on the errata page of my book. Moreover, I am directing Regnery to excise the words "surreptitiously" and "confidential" from future editions of the book.

In addition, I retract the following statements which appeared on my blog:

August 24, 2004:

Contrary to [University of North Carolina law professor Eric] Muller's assertion that the papers shared were "publicly available documents sitting in publicly available files at archives open to the public," the article makes clear that Irons did not obtain permission to receive the papers he acquired from Herzig-Yoshinaga.

August 25, 2004:

As I noted, these records, however, had not been cleared for public use, and Iron's request to copy them had been explicitly denied. By the way, this was not the only time Irons engaged in these sort of shenanigans.

I apologize to Irons and Herzig-Yoshinaga for the errors.

Regnery: Home of the Bullshit Claim and the Unsubstantiated Smear. Anyone who buys a Regnery book buys garbage.

p.s. -- I'm going to start calling Regnery "RegneryEnron." Aren't I a clever chops?

Who Moved My Ability to Reason?

Heh.

I hope she turned down the Op-Ed job the NYT gave to that libertarian dolt, John Tierney. There's no other excuse.

Gopfellas

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be Republican Senator.

New York Republican senate candidate Jeanine Pirro is no stranger to taking campaign money from alleged wiseguys. In fact, the Daily News reports that Pirro took campaign money from a former New York Post executive/convicted criminal named Dick Nasti.

Whaddya mean I'm nasty? Like I'm Dick Morris, I'm here to repulse you? What the fuck is so nasty about me?

Albert Pirro's name has shown up an a Gambino wiretap, and he's already been convicted of applying Reverend Moon's tax accounting principles to his own returns.

Now, Jeanine gets to live the rest of her life as a schnook.

You Eeediots!

The man wrote a book for Regnery.

What more do you need?

Mysteries of Modern Life

Who reads the bridge column? Do people who play bridge even read the bridge column?

"Your honor," the district attorney began, "we will prove South committed a felony, in that he went down at a cold 3NT."

"Proceed."

"North-South were using an antiquated bidding system," the DA began. "In modern methods, North's raise to three diamonds would be invitational or preemptive. South treated it as forcing since he bid 3NT with minimum values."

"I can see the bidding was vintage 1950," sighed the judge. "Get on with it."

"South took the queen of spades," the DA said, "and led a heart to dummy's queen. East won and returned a spade, and South won and let the nine of diamonds ride. East took the king and led his last spade for down one."

Why no column for euchre or pinochle or hearts? Why do papers waste valuable space which could be dedicated to Cryptoquote, or This Day in History?