Jesus Wants Me to Have a Massage. You Not So Much.

Top State Department official Randall Tobias resigns after he’s outed by a prominent DC madam, now under Federal investigation.

You might remember Tobias for his adamant support for “abstinence-only” approaches to fighting the spread of AIDS, with the blessing of George Bush.

Oh, but there wasn’t any sex. Just massages, thank you very much.

Shades of another creepy moralizing hypocrite: Ted “just a massage and a few bumps of meth” Haggard.

Jesus, Etc.

Slate has three exerpts up from Christopher Hitchens’ new book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

Early on, he tries to distance himself from Richard Dawkins and his recent work, but it’s not entirely clear why. While I agree that the attempted “brights” nomenclature is pretty silly, it’s hardly the central tenet of his critique of theists. Hitchens tries to frame this disagreement over taste as one about philosophy and fails.

The second excerpt (regarding Islam) is the weakest one. Hitchens goes to great lengths to describe the vagaries of transmission regarding the Koran. Yes, it was compiled out of things found on the ground like inscriptions on bones and shells, but this doesn’t strike me as any more risible than 72 scholars entering their own private shacks and coming out with exactly the same translations of the Hebrew Testament into Greek.

Sad News

R. I. P. Mstislav Rostropovich.

I’m a big fan of this set of recordings myself.

Debate

1. I love ya Keith Olbermann, but this ain’t Lincoln-Douglas. Not by a long-shot. I’ll admit though, I’m excited too.

2. Is there a degree-program in teaching politicians how to misuse hand gestures? Bill Richardson, whom I generally like, seems to be John Kerry’s understudy in this practice. And it looks completely idiotic.

3. If you close your eyes, Chris Dodd sounds like an older Alec Baldwin.

Hot Knitting Needles Thrust Through My Ears and Eyeballs

In hell, you get two choices of viewing unto eternity — MC Rove (yt) or this, Michelle Malkin cheerleading.

With the Catholic Church taking Limbo off the table, I need to change my ways.

They Messed with the Wrong Jock

Glenn Greenwald on the recent testimony before congress by Pat Tillman’s family and Jessica Lynch.

The linked videos are worth watching, especially that of Tillman’s brother.

There’s plenty of blame to lay at the door of the US military, who are no strangers to obfuscation in the face of the grim realities of warfare. But Greenwald rightly points out that it was the so-called “librul” media that was quick to dutifully and uncritically lap up whatever shreds of heroic pap the Pentagon would feed them.

Wars are awful, horrible things, even when fought for worthy causes (as was the invasion of Afghanistan). But for six years, the Bush administration has been trying to push two contradictory notions. First, that the GWOT is the most epic, dangerous, and potentially world-changing threat to America ever, potentially even moreso than Soviet ICBM’s during the Cold War. Second, that the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq would be cheap, painless, and over quickly. More to the point, there’d be no need for a draft.

Meanwhile, an exhausted US military is scrambling to fulfill its obligations by extending tours.

Jesus Christ, What An. . .

Rudy warns us that another 9/11 is more likely with a Dem POTUS in 2008. Thankfully, Dems have learned that you can’t ignore this sort of baiting, but rather you have to swing back as hard as possible.

Indeed, let’s reopen the entire debate regarding culpability for 9/11. Here, I’ll go first: The full text of the the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U. S.”

For a while there, Giuliani was starting to look like a convincing savior for floundering Republican hopes in 2008. Now, he’s as desperate as the rest of his party.

Simulacrum

WaPo movie reviewer and novelist Stephen Hunter on possible links between the VA Tech murderer and movies.

When the pictures came out, some twisted John Woo-fantasy was the first thing that came to my mind as well.

Metal Friday

This is based on the most cursory of intarweb research, but I think I’ve got it down.

There’s this Britsh band called WarGazM. (Why no umlaut?) They are not to be confused with Wargazm, some dude from Rochester, MN. WagGazM UK do “Emo Fag” and “Orphan Slayer.” The look like nice blokes, as you can see here.

WarGazM also edits their own versions of other metal bands’ videos. It’s kind of hard to explain, but I thought this one was good (a song by a band called Trivium). Here are a few others: Kalmah, Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, Children of Bodom (these are all yt links).

Metal parody is nothing new. But you can tell that beneath the snark, this is a true labor of love.

\ m /

Spring and All

Something weird has been happening to me the past few Springs. I’ve been feeling this strange urge to pay attention to baseball again.

Growing up it was easily my favorite sport, in no small part due to the fact that I had some limited aptitude for it. The other reason was because I was nine years old when the greatest sports team ever, the 1983 Baltimore Orioles, won the World Series.

Names like Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray, and Jim Palmer are commonplace in discussions of genuinely talented heroes of the game. But the genius of this squad, which was put together by Earl Weaver even though he didn’t manage their run to the championship, was that there were some players of exceptional heart but middling ability.