Things I’ve Seen

If people were really listening to one another this letter would be the final word on same-sex marriage.

Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I’ve taken enough from you good people.

…If you want to tout your own morality, you’d best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I’m puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that’s not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?

The whole letter is one of the most eloquent pieces of writing I have come across for a very long time.

This CNN interview has Wesley Clark’s comments on the Bush administration and the Geneva convention - and why he thinks this is about the President.

O’BRIEN: All right, yesterday, former Vice President Al Gore, a leader of your party, called for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condi Rice and George Tenet, head of the CIA. Would you go along with that call?

CLARK: Well, I think our national security is in trouble today and I think that what was done to bring the country into Iraq and the conduct of the policy there represents a failure of the policy-making process.

But I believe this is something — and if they resign, I wouldn’t quarrel with it, but I think that what we need to focus on is what the real issue here is. It’s presidential leadership. The president is the commander in chief. He’s the person who makes the final decisions of the United States government. And so I’m not sure that these people weren’t simply acting out what he wanted them to do.

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Spread the word… Professor Pollkatz is back in town.

In celebration, let’s take a look at his Bush Index. Back in October we were wondering if Bush would break through his all time low of 51.3% - and he just touched it before bouncing back up to 58.5%. But in Febuary he dropped down through it decisively, hovered around 49% for March and April, and has now collapsed to 45.1% and, it seems, falling. (Data is here; the Bush index is basically a weighted average of Bush approval ratings from all major pollsters).

Thanks to Atrios for pointing out Pollkatz’s return.

Nasser Hussain today announced his retirement from cricket.

Nasser Hussain announced his retirement from all cricket at Lord’s at lunchtime today.

There some real style in calling it a day immediately after saving your career and proving the critics wrong, as he did last week with his match winning century against New Zealand. A couple of weeks ago the pundits were predicting his career was over - so he took one more test match to prove them wrong, and then bowed out, on his own terms.

Age was catching up with me in my body and my mind, and the fire in my stomach was deteriorating. I was willing to fight that and the opposition, but not to fight against youth, in the form of Andrew Strauss and others

Very Very Happy lays out a set of quotes from right wing blogs to innoculate us against them. One short snippet from instapundit which, to my mind, goes right to the heart of what is wrong with the Republicans.

THANKS TO PRESIDENT BUSH’S TAX CUTS, I was finally able to buy new blinds for the upstairs. This has made the InstaWife a diehard Bush supporter. Who says the tax cuts were only for the well-off? Something tells me most Democrats won’t be celebrating the windfall.

posted at 04:36 PM by Glenn Reynolds

A LAW PROFESSOR EMAILS, telling me I should demand more than the $375 an hour I currently charge for consulting work. I’m not so sure; I only really do consulting work when I feel like it.

posted at 04:32 PM by Glenn Reynolds

Only a Republican could admit they charge $375 an hour, and that they have the luxury of only doing such work when they feel like it, but not consider themselves well-off.

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