The media absolutely took the ball and ran with it, but they didn't create the ball.  It's not a media creation, though Obama's team has certainly attempted to frame it as such.  You can run a Lexis-Nexis search, if you like.

I think it's a bit disingenuous to implicitly characterize Wright was a pastor who "expressed some anti-American statement."

Regardless, the point here is that Obama's ties with Wright are (or were, now that he's distanced himself from the man) far more significant than Palin's ties to the Jews for Jesus guy (which do not exist).  Fair?

Naming children is indeed a big deal, but after an adolescence filled with mockery and/or non-acceptance, we can always change our names to something cooler and/or Latin-sounding later in life if we so choose...

 

Fwiw, the NY Post called in "handwriting expert" Arlene Leachman, who somehow made the determination that "when he wrote 'forgive me,' there was 'too much space between forgive and me, so he probably doesn't feel he needs to be forgiven.'"

I would love to be able to make those kinds of assertions and be taken semi-seriously -  anyone know where I can get a degree in handwriting studies?

They need to figure out how to encode being filthy/stinking rich into their algorithms.   Good genes + poverty < blah genes + cash, right?

Anyway, I'm still holding my breath for the matchmaking service that helps those who probably need it most - those who lost the genetic lottery, the humorless, the uggos, etc.

 :)

Great stuff, and hopefully the prototype for many a not-only-for-profit venture to come.  It's such a ripe and worthy model for emulation.  And I wish I could find some Kind Healthy Snacks here in L.A.

I feel bad for the deracinated shrubs.  It may be good for the kids to learn how to plant, and to connect to the land thereby, but I can't help but wonder if the "a tree has been planted in your honor..." gifts I've given (and have received) don't have the lasting value I'd originally expected.

As for the kids and water...they've got the a song and dance down, at least.  Good place to start...

That guy's not a rabbi, Daniel - much less an American rabbi.  He has no synagogue.  You made an unsubstantiated (and apparently unsubstantiable) claim about "a lot" of American rabbis calling in their synagogues for Arab blood.  You haven't demonstrated any such thing.  I would say that you're the one fantasizing.

Ismail - It's a fine proposition inasmuch as Rand's success as a novelist can't sincerely be disputed (her work was/is popular and influential to a wide audience, etc.); but her success as a philosopher can (she's never been embraced by philosophy departments, etc.).  That said, the Randians out there would quibble with the idea that Ste. Ayn wasn't even a philosopher!  Who gets to decide?  

That has to be one of the worst mattresses ever, on the top bunk.

Admit it, Bourdain is right.  Anyone who would deny him- or herself the simple, inimitable pleasure of consuming delicacies like fetal duck egg deserves to be cannibalized.