Sadly, No!

Josh Marshall writes:

Becoming a Yankees fan seems almost like apostasy. Dodger fans grow up hating the Yankees. Cardinal fans to a lesser degree. But still a lot of the same. And in any case, they win too much. What makes humans objects of love or devotion or care is almost always their imperfections, the weaknesses and flaws. They are what makes us human rather than mere statues. Admiration and awe for perfection, sure. But the Yanks seem all about breaking other teams’ dreams.

Correction: the Yankees used to be about breaking other teams’ dreams. Over the last five years, they’ve lost to the Diamondbacks, the Angels (twice!), the Marlins and, in the most humiliating collapse the history of sports, my beloved Red Sox. The Yankees of today are just a bunch of aging, overpaid, washed-up has-beens who will fail to win the World Series for a sixth consecutive year, despite having a payroll in excess of $200 million.
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Following up on Retardo’s post below, I think it’s worth re-examining Glenn Reynolds’ characteristically passive-aggressive attempt to justify genocide. Here it is, my emphasis:

Civilized societies have found it harder, though, to beat the barbarians without killing all, or nearly all, of them. Were it really to become all-out war of the sort that Osama and his ilk want, the likely result would be genocide — unavoidable, and provoked, perhaps, but genocide nonetheless, akin to what Rome did to Carthage, or to what Americans did to American Indians. That’s what happens when two societies can’t live together, and the weaker one won’t stop fighting — especially when the weaker one targets the civilians and children of the stronger. This is why I think it’s important to pursue a vigorous military strategy now. Because if we don’t, the military strategy we’ll have to follow in five or ten years will be light-years beyond “vigorous.”

Let’s stop for a minute and think about the implications of this idea. Glenn is literally saying that unless we take “vigorous action” to topple every single Middle Eastern government, we’ll eventually have to commit genocide against the entire Muslim world. For those of you counting at home, that’s one billion people who would be wiped out in an “unavoidable” and “provoked” mass extermination.
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Instayokel, the Knob from Knoxville, attempts snark and fails:

DUNCAN BLACK: “I’m not the ‘Instapundit of the Left.'”

True!

On the other hand, this claim — “I generally read through and fact check stuff I link to” — seems a bit of a stretch.

Such is the bitter, simmering tone of the post that one easily imagines him biting through the stem of his corncob pipe as he wrote it.
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Good thing April 1 has come and gone… From Renew America’s Fred Hutchison:

Homosexuals are difficult to categorize and analyze because there is an extraordinary variety in the sexual perversions that some of them practice. No two gays are alike in their perversions.

I want details and I want them right now. I don’t have a job, I have no place to go. You’re not in the mood? Well you get in the mood! *

If only on account of pure laziness, we’ll probably never figure out why wingnuts are so put out by the Scandinavian countries. We’ve remarked on this in the past (or have meant to at least, and surely that has to count,) but it’s a pony they just can’t stop beating. Over at Townhall’s c-untblog, Dan Mitchell links to a TCS Daily story and adds:

Amazingly, some policy makers in Europe think that nations like Sweden are a role model for the rest of the continent. To be fair, Sweden has a laissez-faire economy in many areas, but the giant welfare state and bad labor market policies hardly make it a success story.

Meanwhile at TCS Daily, college dropout* Hans H.J. Labohm writes:

Social Model Myths

The authors argue that the future of Europe’s generous welfare state model is at stake. It is not capable of coping with the challenges of globalization. While the world’s economy is booming at an average rate of over 4 percent, Europe is stagnating at just 1.5 percent. –emphasis added–

Stagnating? And the Scandinavian countries in particular not doing well? Sadly, No!
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From the Orlando Sentinel, via Mia Culpa, via Atriophone.

How might this be happening? She’s said to be so nice in person.

Since everyone from Michelle Malkin to Kathleen Parker to Pastor Swank to LoneSome Jounrey has been pitching their ideas for immigration reform, I figured I’d join the fun and concoct an immigration policy of my own. What makes immigration such a tricky issue to tackle is that it’s essentially a two-pronged problem: first, there are the brown people who are trying to enter the country, and second, there are the brown people who are in the country already. Because the already-here brown people pose the most immediate threat, we’ll deal with them first.

“GAAAAAAAAH!!!! THE SPIXICANS ARE COMING!!!!!!! HIDE YOUR CHILDREN!!!! TORCH YOUR LOCAL TACO BELL!!!!!!!!”
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I admit it: I love the LittleGreenFootballs comments section. It’s truly a remarkable cacaphony of hysterical, bloodthirsty buffoonery that provides a unique brand of accidental comedy that can’t be matched anywhere else. Witness this brilliant immigration proposal written by an LGF regular named LoneSome Journey:

LoneSome Journey 3/24/2006 11:55AM PST
“I see on TV that there are protests across the US concerning “immigration”.

It is past time for the US citizens to put an end, a complete end, to foreigners, many here illegally, coming into the US and then “demanding” that the US change to support their concepts of how the US should function.

Yes, let’s bring them to a Complete End. Or a Final Solution. Whichever you prefer.

These IDIOTS leave their country because they do not like it but now want the US to change. We need a new law. If foreigners protest a US law or policy, they are DEPORTED IMMEDIATELY.

That’s a pretty nifty idea. If it ever gets enacted, I’m gonna approach a bunch of immigrants and say, “Hey, do you guys know that if you protest any American policy, you get deported?” And then they’ll say, “That’s a stupid fucking policy!” And I’ll be like, “HAAAAAAA-HAAAAAAA, immigrinos! You fucked up! Now you’re getting shipped back to Ballsweatistan, or Shitstainzeeria, or whatever crappy country you’re from! ROFLMFAO!!11!!!”

Gavin adds: Or Trashcanistan. What a dump that country is…
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It’s been a big week, and it’s definitely time for an extra-big, soothing cup of that tea I’ve been drinking lately.

The Right Brothers – ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ ‘It’s The End of the World as We Know It’ ‘Bush Was Right,’ (5:09)

We haven’t heard much from these guys lately, for some reason or another. Oh wait:

‘What About the Issues.’ Finally. A response to all that hate mail. Not available on any other album. Free for a limited time only! Preview.

Hee. It’s a classic Keane-eyed wingnut plaint for civility, like they always do when they’ve screamed Yee-haa! and shot at you until the ammo ran out, and now at long last you’re about to clock them in the nuts. Like, Peace, dude — can’t we talk this over rationally? The cartoonist Vaughn Bodé had the perfect sound effect for someone getting clocked in the nuts. “Hey, Right Brothers.” “What?” [Goomph!]

Is it even possible to have a Myspace page and have only three friends? Anyway, when TRB were first running around stealing other people’s ideas (‘TRB’ is properly the appellation of the Tom Robinson Band, known for the song ‘Glad to be Gay’ among others, while the fade of Cheap Trick’s At-Budokan version of ‘Surrender’ makes a brief, kidnapped appearance at the end of ‘Bush Was Right’), they nabbed a guitar trick involving octave-doubling a note and sliding it up and down the neck that ultimately comes from Rikk Agnew, former guitarist of the Adolescents and Christian Death. Time was, there were only a few other people who did that — early-adopter thieves — and I’ll list the ones from the East Coast that I’m aware of: myself and Doug ‘Sluggo’ Vitzthum, then of Pleased Youth. I daresay it’s a nice, fluid-sounding and butt-simple way to add counterpoint, even sometimes when these yunk-heads do it.

Crucifix – ‘How When Where,’ Target Video footage recorded 1983 (1:43)

One of the original hardcore bands that make newer punk sound flimsy, fronted by a guy named Sothira, who (it was said) came to San Francisco as a Cambodian refugee. Sothira had a major timing problem, though. When you can’t count to eight on the beat, you definitely ought to be practicing at home with a metronome.

Marc Ribot y los Cubanos Postizos – ‘Aurora y Pekin’ (8:55)

Ribot is one of those rare guitarists who can play ordinary, simple phrases rivetingly.

(P’raps more later under the jump…)

LYNCHBURG, Va. – American military hero and Arizona Senator John McCain’s three-month hostage ordeal ended Thursday when he was left on a Lynchburg street in front of the Thomas Road Baptist Church. He appeared composed and eager to talk about his 82 days held captive in a tiny room.

“It’s important people know that I was not harmed,” he said. “A strong mutual respect developed between myself and my captors. They called me ‘Maverick.’â€?

McCain with unidentified captors

Wearing an ill-fitting “Gary Bauer for President� T-shirt and a sheepish expression, the Republican senator was dropped off at midday near Liberty University. He walked inside and was then driven 20 minutes to a local Republican Party headquarters, where he called his family and gave an interview to Fox News.

The 69-year-old Navy veteran said his kidnappers confined him to a small, soundproof room with frosted windows but treated him well. Although his captors issued televised threats to kill McCain if Moderate Republican lawmakers did not back some Bush administration policies, the Senator said, “They never said they would hit me, never threatened me in any way. Sometimes they gave me Snickers bars and let me watch ‘The 700 Club.'”

McCain said he did not know who his kidnappers were, where he was held or why he was set free. Shortly before he was released, the senator said, “They just came to me and said, ‘OK, we’re letting you go now,’ and gave me a deck of playing cards. That’s all. They didn’t say anything about donating money to my presidential campaign, but I would hope the relationship we developed might encourage some of them to support my presidential campaign, instead of that two-faced Bill Frist, or Rick Santorum, who reminds me of the Grand Canyon filled with dillweed.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said there was no ransom paid by the GOP, but his remarks left open the question of whether “arrangements” were made by others. None of the kidnappers has yet been identified, police say.

McCain said that he was eager to get back to normal life. “I’ll be playing a lot of solitaire,” McCain said. “Something about the game fascinates me.”