Eau de beef

I eat a Burger King burger now and then, but I’m not sure I want to spray myself with their new cologne, Flame by BK.
Apparently it’s meat-scented.  This is a joke, right?  A whopper?

Squeaky Clean Oregon

Recent events have people speculating on the most corrupt state in the union.  Illinois, Louisiana???  Via Yglessias we have a chart of public corruption by state over the last 10 years.

No major surprise here with Louisiana at #1.  But I didn’t think Oregon would be absolute cleanest state in the union.

What not to wear, GOP-style

Apparently the GOP spent $150,000 on a makeover for Sarah Palin and her family in September.  C’mon!  The regular folks who appear on What Not to Wear buy “a whole new wardrobe” for $5,000.

Latte Wars

I’m from the Pacific Northwest (Starbucks territory) but I just visited the East Coast and was struck by the popularity of Dunkin’ Donuts there.  Now Matthew Yglesias (location:  DC) reports that Dunkin has taken the LEED, so to speak, in energy efficient stores.  Among other things, a new store
…will have an on-site Earthworm Casting facility, [...]

Remembering Fawn Hall

I was surfing the web for info on the Iran-Contra scandal recently. I think it was because Iran-Contra seems like the template for the Bush/Cheney regime: contempt for Congress and the rule of law, a generalized worship of all things military, and an unbelievable incompetence. In any event, I stumbled on this, a [...]

What would Reagan do?

Conservatives are in a funk these days. W’s approval ratings hover at 30%.  The GOP is about to nominate for president someone who once called Rush Limbaugh a clown and Jerry Falwell “an agent of intolerance”.  Everyone knows it’s a Democratic year.
What’s a conservative to do these days?
In the case of The Heritage [...]

Culture War – Turkish style

I just finished reading the novel “Snow” by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. The central conflict in the story is between the protagonist, Ka, a educated, secular, urban, European-leaning Turk who travels to a rural city of Kars. There he encounters fundamentalist Islamists, Kurdish nationalists and others who feed on the resentment many of the [...]

Perspective

The Gaza Strip is in the news again:
“RAFAH, Gaza Strip, Jan. 23 — Gunmen destroyed vast sections of the seven-mile-long barricade that divides the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Wednesday, allowing tens of thousands of Palestinians to stream across the border and revel in a day away from a territory where Israeli restrictions have stifled [...]

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From a Reuters report:
“Passing through a tiny “Door of Humility”, U.S. President George W. Bush made a pilgrimage to the traditional birthplace of Jesus on Thursday in the West Bank.”

And the winner is….PANTONE 18-3943

Wine makers have us describing the taste and smell of wine (fruity, bold, nutty with a hint of leather). If Pantone, a company that describes itself as “the world-renowned authority on color” has its way, we will be describing colors as well. Here is their 2008 color of the year,blue iris. As [...]