Posted on September 6th, 2005 by
Somewhere below (or click here instead), our partner in snark Brad the other guy takes Jennifer Roback Morse to task for various things, including this:
All Americans are entitled to have the cause, namely, unlimited sexual activity, without ever experiencing the effect, namely, a live baby. To see the absurdity of this claim, try out a couple of analogies.
And this, of course, should have sounded familiar:
MR. HARRY BLACKITT: Look at them, bloody Catholics, filling the bloody world up with bloody people they can’t afford to bloody feed.
MRS. BLACKITT: What are we dear?
MR. BLACKITT: Protestant, and fiercely proud of it.
MRS. BLACKITT: Hmm. Well, why do they have so many children?
MR. BLACKITT: Because… every time they have sexual intercourse, they have to have a baby.
MRS. BLACKITT: But it’s the same with us, Harry.
MR. BLACKITT: What do you mean?
MRS. BLACKITT: Well, I mean, we’ve got two children, and we’ve had sexual intercourse twice.
Two children. We wonder who else has two children?
In addition to their own two kids, Dr. Morse and her husband
Life really does imitate art.
Posted on September 6th, 2005 by Gavin M.
It comes early from the interstices, and often gets more mixed-up and ambiguous as it widens.
Estimated body count in NOLA.
When officials say, “I know the estimate, but we’re not supposed to release it,” this is probably the figure they’re referring to.
Breaking, etc.
Posted on September 6th, 2005 by Gavin M.

“Hi! Are you the Editors?”
No, kittens, I’m afraid not. The Editors is riding bikes on his ranch, and we’re not even allowed to deliver milk and Friskies without authorization.
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Posted on September 6th, 2005 by Gavin M.
Myths of reproductive freedom: Part II — Repealing the law of cause and effect
Jennifer Roback Morse
September 6, 2005
It is startling to realize that the looming battle for the Supreme Court hinges on whether nominees will pledge their support for the utterly irrational demand to suspend the law of cause and effect. For that is what the claim that we have a constitutional right to ?reproductive freedom? amounts to. All Americans are entitled to have the cause, namely, unlimited sexual activity, without ever experiencing the effect, namely, a live baby. To see the absurdity of this claim, try out a couple of analogies.
Ok, here’s one. There’s something that irrationally defies the law of cause and effect by teaching us that we are entitled to have the cause — jumping out of an airplane — without the effect — landing blam! on the ground and being dead. That thing is a parachute.
Another thing is the flint spearpoint. It taught us that we could have the cause — being hungry — without the effect — staring in eternally impotent frustration at herds of gazelle. We can play this game all day, and so can Ms. Morse.
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Posted on September 6th, 2005 by Gavin M.
Throwing out the thugs

“Black people in the news means it’s time to take a hard look at gangsta rap.”
[Update: What a ridiculous day! From a heads-up by Nolo in comments: We posted this at 4AM EST (see Deutschestimestamp, below), and now TBogg has a sassy 7AM time on his Hagelin thingo. Which means 4AM because he’s in California. What hive mind is this?]
[Update: Ok, Amanda — you definitely checked in here before you posted this Shorter Rebecca Hagelin thing, otherwise free will is hereby disproved. Q: Who was the hero of Legend of Zelda?]
Posted on September 6th, 2005 by Gavin M.
An American Airlines plane arrived at McGhee Tyson Airport at 3:10 p.m. Saturday with about 130 people from New Orleans.
Vice President Dick Cheney was on the plane, helping patients. He did not grant interviews to reporters Saturday.
“My understanding was that he made this happen, that he actually arranged for this aircraft,” Webb said.
Oh wait, must’ve read that wrong.
Former Vice President Al Gore was on the plane, helping patients. He did not grant interviews to reporters Saturday.
“My understanding was that he made this happen, that he actually arranged for this aircraft,” Webb said.

Al Gore (at center)
Posted on September 5th, 2005 by
That’s gotta hurt I don’t care where you come from:
”He’s [Michael D. Brown] done a hell of a job, because I’m not aware of any Arabian horses being killed in this storm,” said Kate Hale, former Miami-Dade emergency management chief who oversaw emergency response during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. “The world that this man operated in and the focus of this work does not in any way translate to this. He does not have the experience.”
Posted on September 5th, 2005 by
Thanks to tips from readers Donna and John, and via Blah3, War and Piece and Kevin Drum, we read about this:
Dutch viewer Frank Tiggelaar writes: There was a striking discrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.
ZDF News reported that the president’s visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of ‘news people’ had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.
After some research, editing and translating, we bring you the text of the report above. The translation, including any errors, is ours. For those who wish to perform their own translation, the video file is here. (Full broadcast on ARD’s website here.)
Anchorwoman: For the latest live from Biloxi, Christine Adelhardt:
Christine Adelhardt: The President drove by here in his convoy 2 minutes ago. What happened today in Biloxi however is truly unbelievable. Rescue teams suddenly appeared, recovery vehicles were suddenly here, one hadn’t seen them here over the course of the entire day. And this in an area where it really wasn’t necessary to clean up much because pretty much nobody lives around here. The people are further away into the city. The President travels with a press pool, the pool has thanks to this very nice pictures which should say the President was there and help is on the way. The extent of the natural disaster shocked me. But the extent of the staging [Inszenierung] today shocks me at least as much. With that, back to Hamburg.
As you’ll see if you look at the clip, sadly no footage of the staging. So we’ll close with an old Insta trick: Disturbing, if true.
Posted on September 5th, 2005 by Brad
A very happy birthday to D. Sidhe, one of our most loyal commenters! We like her so much that we’ve paid the cast of Gimme Gimme Octopus to send her this special greeting:

“Kure, kure, kure! Have a good birfday!”
Posted on September 5th, 2005 by Brad
Note to Marie Jon’: I think I’ve found a potential star columnist for you in the comment section of Brad DeLong’s blog (via the Sandwichman, writing at Max Sawicky’s place):
You know, It’s really sad that americans like you are so quick to jump on the bandwagon and start conversations of impeachment when you yourself have no idea what’s actually happening out there. YOUR stupidity rings louder than the actions of the president.
So in other words, Bush’s actions ring more quietly than a piece of writing published on someone’s personal website. And that’s pretty sad, considering he’s the President of the United States and whatnot. You’d think he’d have a wee bit more clout.
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