A LITTLE LIGHTNESS FOR FRIDAY
First a little red meat for the conservative kids out there, from the always warm, sweet and stable Ann Coulter:

Should we apologize and return the country to Saddam Hussein and his winsome sons? Should we have him on "Designer's Challenge" to put his palaces back in all their '80s Vegas splendor? Or maybe Uday and Qusay could spruce up each other's rape rooms on a very special episode of "Trading Spaces"? What is liberals' point?

No one cares.

Ouch, right between the eyes. Then Lileks turns some good phrases in rebutting a journalist who defends his profession against bias by saying, well, they're biased:

All hail the 10,000 foot view! From there everything looks so green and lovely. From this Olympian perspective, helping the homeless is more imporant than worrying about property taxes. Even though those property taxes fund things like, well, homeless shelters, and if you jack them up so high they’re pinging off the Van Allen Belts people will leave the city, and hence you’ll have less money for the homeless shelters. But it gets better. He's a journalist!

"Pinging off the Van Allen Belts". Such a good line. Please, read more of this and the letter he is reacting to. And, here's more good stuff from Lileks, though you might not get it if you don't have small children:

For those who don’t know, Baldwin played The Conductor, a pint-sized character who appeared in the live-action spots. The role was also played by George Carlin and Ringo Starr, and I’ve oft insisted that Abby Hoffman killed himself because he knew that he’d end up playing the role someday, too.

He's talking about Thomas the Tank Engine, which is surprising in that it talks about the value of hard work -- and even has bad guys (ever notice how Oscar the Grouch is all loveable now?).

Labels: Coulter