Monday Miscellaney

by folkbum

• Our TiVo
  2003-2007
  Rest in Peace
  
• The Brawler writes about unions so I don't have to. All youse who are afraid of imaginary union goons (like the scary 300 pound men of Paul Noonan's fevered imagination) are apparently unfamiliar with the facts.
  
  
• Speaking of studies that burst conservatives' imaginary-world bubbles, it turns out that immigrants--including illegal ones--boost pay more than prison populations.
  
  
• Who would have guessed that I'm in the top ten for a Google search for hamburger helper turning in my wrench for a fork?
  
  
• The Cheddarsphere's own Sean Hackbarth has been the point man on what I see as a too-little-too-late campaign to distance the genteel right from Ann Coulter. (If you don't know why Coulter is in the news again, just Google it up.) I say too-little-too-late because Ann Coulter is now and has been for a long time a known quantity. Yet I didn't see Sean boycotting the convention; rather, he was quite glad to go despite knowing that Coulter would be there even after her as-offensive remarks from last year.
  
  Blue Texan pointedly asks Sean why it took so long, especially given that her remarks this weekend were tame by comparison to her previous hits. Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog has reports from the same now-aghast bloggers reporting on how much that very convention loved Coulter before the speech.
  
  It is often said that there is basically nothing a prominent right-winger can say that will get them ostracized (although someone should ask David Brock about that). And I predict that there will be little change to Ann Coulter's media status after this past weekend.
  
  Oh, and what Digby said.
  
  
• Anyone who thinks that the crisis at Walter Reed is somehow indicative of government's inability to deliver health care should read this and this.
  
  
• Who knew that Rick Esenberg's done more drugs than I have? And I'm a cymbal-banging leader of the drum-circle left!
  
  
• This is from the same massive conservative conference Ann Coulter befouled. I don't entirely know if the picture is fair, but it's kind of funny. I got it from here, but the site's currently under a denial-of-service attack by those genteel righties.
  
  
• I can't believe people aren't embarrassed to death to do things like this. Saying one night, about Mitt Romney's Mormonism, "We created a new religious litmus test. This is very troublesome to me, and no other candidate is getting that scrutiny." And then saying the very next night about Barack Obama, "Now, a closer look at the church's vision has led many to call them separatist and, in some cases, even drawing comparisons to a cult." How does his brain not explode?
  
  
• And, saved for last because my head might explode: I actually agree with McIlheran. Althouse, however, continues to befuddle me.