A Butt Too Far
I'm as virulent an anti-smoker as anyone. I can't stand having to fight through the haze of stinking smoke and generally avoid establishments that make me do so. (Plenty of them in my state of VA, where tobacco roots run deep.) But this goes a bit far, in my estimation. "Quit or you're fired" is a draconian big-brother nightmare come true. It's one thing to say that workers cannot endanger the health of their co-workers by smoking in the workplace, but are there, at long last, at least SOME activities that are our own business when we do them at home? ( Libertarians, unite! Bad spellers of the world, untie!)

GET YOUR FAST FOOD BAGS, HALF-FULL GRANDE COFFEE CUPS, EMPTY BEER BOTTLES AND CIGARETTE BUTTS READY


Looks like the Nazis have decided to be good citizens and adopt a highway in Oregon. I wonder when they'll be out cleaning up?

I hate Oregon Nazis.

BACK TO HALOSCAN FOR COMMENTING. NO MORE SIGNING IN TO BLOGGER AND HAVING A HELL OF A TIME READING THE POSTS.

DEJA VU ALL OVER THE WEB
There must be a glitch in "the Matrix."

The "Wal-Mart Living Wage Coalition," of Ithaca, New York, has its own website, which features a picture of a handful of the many committed, "ethnically diverse," men and women of Ithaca who tirelessly work against Wal-Mart's everyday low prices and job opportunities for the disadvantaged class.

Incidentally, the exact same committed, "ethnically diverse," men and women are also featured at Ithaca's own Bush MUST Go website, telling us not to vote for the recently re-elected Republican:

If you are wondering why they use the same picture, it might be because this is what the bulk of the "living wage coalition" actually looks like:

I guess the ones at the two websites are the only Ithacites that take the time to bathe or shave on a regular basis.

LILEKS OFFENDED BY SIMPSONS
Ok, maybe offended is too strong, but he does have a problem with this scene - as he quotes it:

Maggie Simpson gets an IQ test. Oh the hilarity: Simon Crowell is the admissions director! She scores high. “Meet Maggie Simpson,” he says to another school official. “IQ, 167.”

“One sixty seven!” says the other official. “That’s amazing for a Christian!”

I missed the episode, but I don't think this is a "gratuitous" shot at Christians as Lileks thinks. Based on the transcript provided, my first thought was that this was a shot at the "intellectual elite" who would actually be surprised by a Christian with a high I.Q. It's making fun of those people, not of Christians, I think. Seems clear it's pointing out the idiocy of the prejudice. My advice, don't be so quick to be the victim.

AG STRONGMAN GENERALISSIMO BRITT COBB
I'm sure you non-North Carolina types are enjoying the banana republic exploits of our never elected Agriculture Commissioner. Here's the latest shot from the editorial page of the Greensboro News & Record:

Be patient, Britt Cobb urged Monday. There's no reason to hurry a decision in the deadlocked state agriculture commissioner race.

That's easy for him to say. Every day's delay extends his term in office. It would suit Cobb just fine if the 2004 election is never settled.

Steve Troxler can't be expected to have the patience of Cobb. After all, it's Troxler -- who won more votes than Cobb -- who's being kept out of office by Cobb's stalling.

"He's drawing my client's paycheck," Troxler's attorney, Marshall Hurley, fumed about Cobb.

. . .

It's up to Cobb. He was not elected to office in the first place, and he wasn't elected in November. Every day he remains taxes the public's patience.

Like Barry Goldwater in 1974, it's time for more of North Carolina's Democrats, starting with Governor Mike Easley, to tell Mr. Cobb to pack his bags. Every day he remains makes him - and his party - more of a joke.

Oh yeah, Bill Fletcher needs to quit too. You want establish a precedent for following the rules on provisional ballots, but you don't want to follow the rules that say whoever gets more votes wins? Quit the race, let Atkinson get sworn in, and work the provisional ballot issue with the legislature.

NOT JUST COBB, FLETCHER SHOULD QUIT, TOO
Republican Bill Fletcher is refusing to concede his race for N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction to Democrat June Atkinson. Atkinson won by 8,535 votes, but Fletcher complains that 11,310 votes should be thrown out because they were illegal votes, invalidly cast and unlawfully counted. For Fletcher to pick up enough votes to win, those 11,310 votes must have been cast for Atkinson 69%-31%. If Atkinson leads among those ballots by that much, then either there's some kind of wide spread Democratic fraud - which has not been alleged - or only ballots cast in certain heavily Democratic areas are being disputed - which sounds suspiciously like Al Gore's cherry-picking recount in Florida in 2000.

So, unless Fletcher can show hard evidence of massive fraud, there's no freaking way he can win. It's not about him. It's not about Cobb. It's about doing the right thing. These men need to act like adults and accept defeat.

And the legislature needs to address the issues raised by these races expeditiously.

COUP d'AG
Imagine this scenario. A politician runs for reelection. The vote is close, but he gets less votes than the challenger. Three months later after all other newly elected or reelected government officials are sworn in, this losing politician remains in office because the election board refuses to certify his loss - and the election board is controlled by the losing politician's party. Imagine, further, that this losing politician clings to power despite calls from leaders of his own party, including his party's Senate majority leader, to concede the election and step down.

Stop imagining. This is happening today in North Carolina, as Britt Cobb remains the state's Commissioner of Agriculture, despite losing his race to Republican Steve Troxler. He has started serving the new term as all other state goverment officials have been sworn in. Imagine if, say, Tom Daschle started serving a new term in the U.S. Senate on January 6, and you'd understand what Britt Cobb is doing.

This lifetime government employee appears to validate a government employee stereotype - the belief they have a right to their job and no one can take it away. Britt Cobb believes that even the voters can't, after they already have. And the Democrats on the State Board of Elections have chosen to put partisanship above Democracy. Now, Cobb wants to get the Democrat-controlled legislature to decide who will be the next Commissioner of Agriculture - the voters be damned. Dem. leader Sen. Marc Basnight has already urged Cobb to concede, now he should make it clear that Cobb wouldn't have the support of his party in the legislature. Then, maybe Cobb will leave the office he has been voted out of.

Until then, the N.C. Agriculture Department - and the people of the state - are victims of a coup. Ask the next N.C. Democrat you see where they stand on partisanship and democracy - and what they're doing about the coup.

HYDROGEN FUEL NOT SO "CLEAN"

Check out the recent issue of Popular Science. It goes point by point how Hydrogen fuel, as of right now, is not the wave of the future.

It'll increase the use of fossil fuels not only for the process of seperating the hydrogen atoms from water, but also with the shipping from the factories to any fuel stations. A gallon of gas has 2,600 times the energy as a gallon of hydrogen fuel. Plus, hydrogen leaks will rise into the atmosphere and would help contribute to any "Green House" effect.

In short, more pollutants will be released into the air to bring you that hydrogen fuel than would have been expelled by a fossil fuel burning vehicle.

The article also explains that "renewable sources can provide only a small fraction of the energy that will be required for a full-fledged hydrogen economy."

Which means that all that trouble, and taxpayer money, being expended to develop a hydrogen car will probably be for naught.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 27
Atlanta Falcons 10

Bring on the Patriots.

BEAT ATLANTA