Have an "Old Yeller" day, everyone!

They had to euthanize Barbaro yesterday (AP via Sports Illustrated).

And the state of Idaho is about to start auctioning off permits to kill endangered wolves (USA Today).

Krauthammer v. Bush energy plan

Conservative WP columnist Charles Krauthammer hates the president's "energy independence" plan, too. For slightly different reasons than some of us, as revealed in his column today.

"Energy Independence?
A Serious Plan Requires Taxes, ANWR and Nukes" (WP)

Eeek! The gas-tax hike that he discusses in the column, of course, is a solution that would probably work to cut gasoline consumption, and one that Krauthammer can write about without getting branded a tax-hiking Communist. (Even Schwarzenegger came under fire last year (SF Chron) for proposing such a thing.) ANWR--well, we've been through this.

The nuclear energy thing, though, is a matter for some discussion. The need to swiftly ramp down greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic consequences has given nuclear energy a new following, even among some environmentalists and their supporters. I won't rehash my personal issues with nuclear power here (see posts Nukes are not green, Because nuclear energy wasn't scary enough yet, and I just can't stop writing about nukes), but it's gonna be interesting to see how the debate over nuclear power as a "clean" energy solution to global warming and other ills shakes out.

Priorities

There are football people, and there are non-football people. I'm a non-football person, so I guess I just don't get this one.

Wife induces labor so husband can go to Bears game (Sports Illustrated)
Nine months pregnant and married to a fervent Bears fan with tickets to Sunday's NFC Championship game, Colleen Pavelka didn't want to risk going into labor during the game against the New Orleans Saints...Due to give birth on Monday...She opted for the Friday delivery.

"I thought, how could [Mark] miss this one opportunity that he might never have again in his life?" said Pavelka, 28, from the southwestern Chicago suburb of Homer Glen.

This one opportunity that he might never have again in his life...

Suing the homeless

A Madison Avenue antiques dealer is suing four homeless people for $1 million, "alleging they scare away customers when they drink alcohol, urinate and warm themselves above a heating duct in front of his shop." (Reuters)

Good luck, sir--take 'em for everything they're worth!

I wish the same had occurred to me when certain students were drinking alcohol, cursing at the clientele, warming themselves and occasionally urinating in my college dining facility. I usually just kicked them back out on the street.

Bloggin' in the free world

As you may be aware, internet use is heavily regulated, monitored, and censored in a number of countries. (No YouTube for those poor bastards...) But a new "censorship circumvention solution" called Psiphon lets you offer up your home computer as a web proxy for users in countries where the internet is censored. Official site here; I first heard about it in a recent On the Media story that you can read or listen to here.

Weird winter watch #2

Sighted today: many, many pansies and one brave little jonquil in full bloom along New Hampshire Avenue.

I love jonquils. They are so jaunty and yellow. But they are weird in January, which is why the little guy triggered a weird winter watch entry.

24 season premiere

I've never watched 24 before this, but all I know is, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) just killed a man with his bare mouth, by literally chewing his throat out. It looked sorta credible. Awesome.

PS: Next Sunday: Battlestar Galactica season 3.5 premiere!!! 10 pm!!! Get ready!!!

Running route mapping application

Here's one of several Google Maps apps that allow you to map out your run/walk/bike ride and check the mileage. Pretty cool--it lets you plot a route out anywhere, not just over mapped streets. Also, you can save your routes privately on the site or post them publicly, and check out other people's public routes.

www.WalkJogRun.net

Anonymous conspiracy theorist Hill staffer

So, who's this guy? Don't know if he's telling the truth or actually works for Congress or what, but he tells a good story of tobacco industry fat cats, a CIA-hangout strip bar that is surely none other than the Crystal City Diner, and a near-USS-Cole/Syriana type experience.

Listen to this one

And this one

And most importantly this one

Winning

Last night I participated in a pub quiz. Our team won Charmin FreshMates ("A disposable wipe for every stage of life!") which is pretty awesome. I am definitely going to put them in an accessible spot in the bathroom--especially when guests come to visit.

It made me think about the value of all the things you win in raffles, pub quizzes, drag bingo games, road races, and the like. What's the dollar value of these things? What is the weirdest thing you've ever won, and what did you do with it?

Why are people always hatin' on New Jersey?

Dude, just because you smell a bad smell...does not mean it came from Jersey.

A foul odor blanketed lower Manhattan and parts of New Jersey today, prompting a brief transit shutdown, a rash of building evacuations, and a quick disavowal from New Jersey officials who wanted the world to be clear on one point.

"It did not originate in Jersey," Maria Pignataro, a press secretary for the Jersey City mayor's office, told CNN as emergency officials tried to pinpoint the source of the smell. (WP)

[I do find it rather hard to believe that an actual NJ government official would refer to the state as "Jersey." This is often frowned upon by Garden Staters.]

Requiem for unintentionally hilarious Resources Committee web pages

There is only one tiny nagging qualm about the Democrat Congressional takeover as it affects the House Resources Committee. The qualm is that the Resources Committee website will not be quite as **entertaining** as it was when Richard Pombo was in charge. I notice that the Ds have been hard at work scouring the servers and putting up their own majority site. The craziest Pombo pages may be dead on the Internets. But they will live forever--on this blog.

An announcement.

I now have hair. Check it!
I wanted to let you know because it is one of my proudest personal achievements of 2006. In some places, it is as long as 6 inches. I know because I measured. That's up from a record low of less than 1/4 inch (post-buzzcut, March 1999) and an average of about 3 inches over the past eight years.

And it wasn't easy. President Bush may have been busy in his spare time last year, clearing brush, but I was busier--growing inches and inches of hair, right on top of my head!

I would like to thank my friends, for sorta believing I would actually grow it this time, and my awesome hairstylist Mindie, whose wise counsel prevented me from breaking out the clippers in month 3, and the makers of bobby pins, who may not realize that they are literally HOLDING LIVES TOGETHER. Cheers.

Bad cherry timing: Weird winter watch #1

The cherry trees are already beginning to bud out on the Mall, according to eyewitness reports. Presumably because of the freakishly warm weather.

Meanwhile, I don't see any freezing predicted in DC in the near future, which means that we may actually see cherry blossoms in January. I am pretty sure this is the eighth sign of the apocalypse. A pretty one, but a sign nonetheless.

Sympathy for the devil?

For a couple of days I have been trying to articulate why I feel so icky-weird about Saddam Hussein's execution. No more; Christopher Hitchens takes a solid crack at the question in Slate today.

The District makes its New Year's resolutions

1. No new tapas bars.
2. Quit smoking. (Check!)
3. Build the purple line.
4. Vote.