RoguePlanet

To me, Sontag was one of those writers that lots of people, especially "correct people" in literary circles, keep copies of their work on prominent display, but have actually read very little of. I know that outside of tiny excerpts, I haven't read anything by her, although of course I'm usually hardly correct in any measure. But just reading this obit in Newsday tells me I haven't missed much.

"So when I go to a Patti Smith concert, I enjoy, participate, appreciate and am tuned in better because I’ve read Nietzsche. The main reason I read is that I enjoy it. There’s no incompatibility between observing the world and being tuned into an electronic, multimedia, multi-tracked, McLuhanite world and enjoying what can be enjoyed about rock ’n’ roll."

That's the kind of statement that makes people in black turtlenecks, granny glasses, and Birkenstocks nod their heads in emphatic, brie-scented agreement, and the rest of us go, "Huh?" And the rest of us are right.

MOUNTAIN REST - Step right up folks, come see the three-legged chicken. And it's no joke, says the sign.
The golden-brown three-legged beauty pecks its way around a pen behind the Mountain Top Trading Post in Mountain Rest.

Rick Pelfrey, who assists his mother, Maybelle Pelfrey, in running the family-owned business, said he bought the chicken more than a month ago from a friend for $100.

A sign outside the trading post reads, "For a dollar you can see a three-legged chicken, it's alive - no joke."

Taped in one upper corner of the sign is the first dollar Pelfrey's sideshow spectacle earned him.

More than 170 people have since paid to view the chicken, which shares a pen with a rooster and a smaller chicken.

Word-of-mouth is partly responsible for much of the attention the chicken has drawn to the trading post, which is known for its hot-boiled peanuts, Pelfrey said.

A karaoke performer who stabbed a heckler at a James Island bar died after he was tackled by bystanders, authorities said.

Alton Ray Smith, 39, of Folly Beach, died about 1 a.m. Wednesday at the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital, Charleston County chief deputy coroner Rae Wooten said.

Smith stabbed a man who criticized the performance late Tuesday at Skipper’s Sports Grill, witnesses said. Several men tackled Smith and held him until police arrived.

The altercation played a part in Smith’ death, but more tests are needed to determine how he died, Wooten said. No one has been charged in the death, Charleston police Lt. Richard Moser said.

Robert Citrolo, 32, of James Island, remained in the hospital Wednesday, where he was being treated for three wounds to his back and a punctured lung, police said.

LEXINGTON, Kentucky (AP) -- A teenager is suing her school district for barring her from the prom last spring because she was wearing a dress styled as a large Confederate battle flag.

The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court claims the Greenup County district and administrators violated Jacqueline Duty's First Amendment right to free speech and her right to celebrate her heritage at predominantly white Russell High School's prom May 1. She also is suing for defamation, false imprisonment and assault.

"Her only dance for her senior prom was on the sidewalk to a song playing on the radio," said her lawyer, Earl-Ray Neal.

QUESTION: Mr. President, on that point, there is already a lot of opposition to the idea of personal accounts, some of it fairly entrenched among the Democrats. I wonder what your strategy is to try to convince them to your view.
And specifically, they say that personal accounts would destroy Social Security. You argue they would help save the system. Can you explain how?

BUSH: I will try to explain how without negotiating with myself. It's a very tricky way to get me to play my cards. I understand that.

Have you noticed that Christ is being taken out of Christmas? The common greeting these days is "Happy Holidays!" I have nothing against Santa, Rudolph or Frosty the Snowman, but without Jesus Christ, it would be like having Christmas dinner with no turkey or ham.

George W. Bush, international economist: "There's a trade deficit. That's easy to resolve: People can buy more United States products if they're worried about the trade deficit."

Graham, R-S.C., spoke to more than 2,500 graduates at the winter commencement ceremony for USC's eight campuses, calling them the next great generation.

"We're going to win the war, ladies and gentlemen, and the reason we're going to win the war is because of our nation's young," Graham said.

Graham said the average age for military in the Persian Gulf region is 20 for sailors, 22 for special forces members and 28 for fighter pilots.

Graham also pledged to fight for Social Security reform before the system runs out of money in 2042.

"Just do the math. That's about the time you'll need it, isn't it?" Graham said with a chuckle.

* "Nearly every slave in the South enjoyed a higher standard of living than the poor whites of the South -- and had a much easier existence." (page 30)

Dear Mr. Kuhn:

Thank you for your brilliant investigative reporting on "Atrios" and his hidden bias. I, like countless others, was drawn to his blog by his pose of neutrality and objectivity. Little did I know that he was in the employ of a shadowy group and pushing an anti-Bush agenda "all the while," as you put it in the first (of several) published versions of your article.

You will probably be criticized by some just because you got a few basic, easily verifiable facts completely wrong. Ignore the naysayers. The important thing is that you have exposed the hidden bias of Atrios and his Internet blog.

Please consider doing a similar investigation of the blogger known as "kc." Her blog, "Rogue Planet," feigns neutrality but I suspect that she may actually harbor strong anti-Bush sentiments. I suspect as well that she is receiving funds from shadowy groups. Just look at her blog; observe the professional-looking, polished template and the sophisticated graphics. The FEC needs to investigate her and the source of her funding.

That's "Rogue Planet." Don't forget to put the URL in your article. "Rogue Planet." "Rogue Planet."

Oh, by the way, here's a tip: I suspect "The Medium Lobster" isn't really a lobster. On his Internet blog he pretends to hold lobsterarity but think about it: You can't operate a computer mouse with lobster claws. You might want to look into it.

Kind regards,

Anonymous

On Wednesday, Peterson's frail-looking mother, Jackie Peterson, spent a tearful 40 minutes on the stand as the defense wound up its penalty phase presentation. She urged jurors to sentence her son to life and save the family further pain and begged jurors to see the good in her son.

"He's an exceptional young man and he's my son," Jackie Peterson said. "I know he's not perfect ... but he is genuinely a loving, caring, nurturing, kind, gentle person."

After the lead-in sentence, “Posner” is careful not to mention again the war being prosecuted in Iraq. This is a nice move, reminiscent of the best UseNet trolls. When angry bloggers complain that neither the cost-benefit thing nor the analogy to Hitler make any contact with present reality whatsoever, or suggest that the post sounds like it was written in the Autumn of 2002 — or maybe the Winter of 1990 — they’ll have unwittingly set themselves up for a fall: after all, “Posner” was only considering the justifiability of preventive war sub specie aeternitas, not the actual costs and benefits of any particular war the U.S. might or might not be engaged in at present.

Elsewhere on the blog, the absurd suck-up comments from law students are a further indication that the reader is being gamed. Take this one from “Charles”, for instance:

Dear Justice Posner, I am a 2L at DePaul and I just wanted to say that I think all of your legal decisions are brilliant. I think that you and Dr. Thomas Sowell are the most insightful economic minds in the world today

"grave and gathering danger."
What, precisely, standard is that? Alliteration is not a standard. Do the words "grave and gathering" tell us anything? What does it mean for danger to "gather?" Is that when danger's underpants are wrinkled? - Rob

I am arguing that any dictator anywhere in the world can be justifiably killed or imprisoned by any democratic government at any time. - Jason Ligon

One may agree or disagree with any particular analysis of this sort, but the point is that different people have different predictions of what the results of a given preventative action will be, value different sorts of outcomes differently and consequently arrive at very different conclusions about the appropriate courses of action. In other words, this is a question with regard to which the abstract methodological discussion engaged in by Judge Posner is unnecessary and unproductive; as is often the case with economic approaches to geo-political problems, the guise of mathematical rigor disguises an all-too-obvious failure to address the truly complex and nuanced questions raised by the issue at hand. Certain kinds of limited thinkers get excited by this appearance of rigor, thinking that it introduces cool, calm rationality to a problem which has been mired in bluster and vituperations. In reality, however, it only begs all the interesting questions, leaving the difficult analysis for others to perform. Traditional Tradesman (OK, this one isn't "funny" but I liked it. . . .)

Hello Mr. Posner, (Can I call you Dick?) I suspect you are interested enough to read these comments so I just wanted to give a little greeting from a IL at Indiana who is rather tired of reading your opinions in his casebook. We recently covered Indiana Harbor Belt R.R. v. American Cyanamid, and I wanted to ask you if any folks have moved from the polluted ghettos of the south side up into your subdivision like you so compassionately suggested. Perhaps you threw a party for them when they arrived, Bring Your Own Cake. - Corey

Mr. Brill did not seem thrilled about the new direction Court TV has taken since Time Warner bought out his stake in the network in 1997. In his day, anchors were forbidden to express their views or take a position on trials they were covering. And as Court TV has changed, he said, so has Ms. Grace.

"I regret what her persona on television has become because I think it just contributes to the overall scream culture that is too often cable television," he said. "I feel like I owe a debt to society for putting her on television."

COLUMBIA - A high-ranking member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has been elected to the state Education Board, sparking protests from civil rights groups.
"This should send chills down the spine of all South Carolinians," said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which tracks racist groups.

Ron Wilson, a former commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, ran unsuccessfully for state Senate this year but was selected to the education panel by a 4-3 vote of state legislators from Anderson County's delegation to replace John Hostetler, a former high-school principal who is retiring.

He once sold textbooks to parents who home-school their children, including "Barbarians Inside the Gates," which touted a discredited theory that Jews are working toward world domination.

Potok's group decried that book as "a viciously anti-Semitic tome."
The new post puts Wilson in the role of approving textbooks, settling teacher grievances and working with the education superintendent's office on policy.