There’s a pattern in the mainstream Democrat-cheering media these days. Just like the poll numbers that go unreported when Bush is ahead of Kerry, they remain curiously muffled on economic good news.
Larry Kudlow, at NRO;

If it’s not bad enough that rapid economic recovery has neutered Sen. Kerry’s principal domestic criticism of President Bush, now comes even worse news for the Democratic campaign: The budget deficit is starting to substantially shrink.
The latest budget numbers show a $19.1 billion surplus for June, $3 billion higher than the $16 billion Wall Street expectation. It seems that a flood of new tax collections, spurred by fatter employment payrolls and corporate profits, is rapidly reducing the federal budget gap. Tax receipts from businesses rose an astonishing 38 percent over the past twelve months and personal income-tax collections increased almost 9 percent. What’s happening? Could it be that stronger economic growth from lower tax rates is producing more tax receipts? I believe it’s called supply-side economics.
Just as the 1.5 million new jobs created since last August has terminated talk of a jobless recovery, the chatter over widening budget deficits will end. The fiscal-year 2004 budget deficit now looks to come in around $435 billion, less than 4 percent of GDP. This would be almost $100 billion below early-year estimates from the Office of Management and Budget and about $50 billion less than Congressional Budget Office forecasts. The administration is also getting its arms around federal spending. Fiscal year to date, domestic discretionary program spending has slowed to 2.7 percent from 6.8 percent a year ago.

This will come as surprising news to Canadians, who have been sold on the notion that tax cuts undermine revenue. Or, at least it would if there was a snowball’s chance in Hell that they’ll hear about it.
hat tip – The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

According to John Gormley this morning, Saskatoon will be seeing its first ever speed-dating night at one of the local hot spots. Think drive-thru meat market.
During your 8 minute interview, you aren’t to ask age, phone number or occupation. Okey dokey.

“Is that your Porsche out there with my breast prints on it?”
“If you were a horse, would one say you were ‘hung like a human’?”
“What if I told you I can breathe through my ears?”
“Do you have an older brother?”
“Is that oxygen line permanent?” [if you can’t afford a private nurse, you can’t afford me]

Add your own suggestions in the comments section. If I decide to do this, I’ll need material of all types…. Let’s make it a contest. I’ll announce the winners Friday.

What would we do without headline writers?
ALZHEIMER: NEW GENETIC RISK FACTOR DISCOVERED IN BOLOGNA

(AGI) – Bologna July 9 – Professor Federico Licastro of the experimental pathology ward of the University of Bologna has discovered a new factor to value the genetic risk of Alzheimer, related to the metabolism of cholesterol. His study was conducted in collaboration with the Don Gnocchi Foundation and the San Raffaele hospital in Milan and involved 327 patients (335 checks were carried out). The genetic component (a polymorphic form of the HMGCoA gene) and other known genetic factors can be used to estimate the individual risk of the illness before it starts to develop.

When this hits the mainstream American media I fully expect half the headlines will include speculation about the recall of luncheon meat.

Plus the power take-off, the cobalt bomb, and circus porn

I’m going to give it a try. I have good kidneys, am in good health, so why not? I’ve signed up for the Atkins diet. Last night’s menu:

Dinner:
Two Superstore No-Name [tm] all beef hot dogs, boiled, wrapped in a slice of white bread, with canola margarine and mustard.
7 Presidents Choice [tm] Decadent Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
(Not necessarily in that order)
Snack:
Tomato sandwich. (White bread, canola margarine.)

Actually, I’ve been on a diets that resemble this, on and off, for most of my life. (I went through a regime of Gatorade and Frosted Mini Wheats once.) Indeed, I’m polishing off three more cookies this morning as I write this.
Yum.

Silent Running: noticed this timeline discrepency in Bill Clinton’s book.

In his recently released book “I’m a Democrat so the rules don’t apply to me” Bill told us that his wife was named after Sir Edmund Hillary making Ed his “second favorite Hillary”.
Ohhhh, isn’t that just so sweet.
The question is why did her parents name her after a little known New Zealand bee keeper who’s most notable activities to date had been to hunt crocs while he was serving in the air force in the Pacific during WWII.
Of course when little Hillary was six years old Ed became a tad more well known when he got to the top of world.

I always wanted a big psychedelic school bus, too.

Dean Esmay makes an interesting point about world population, and population density. In so doing, he moves everyone on the planet to Alberta.
Living in Saskatchewan, I have no problem imagining this.
hat tip – OTB

Over the past couple of days I’ve been preparing my garden and tending to some badly needed yard work. In so doing I’ve had a epiphany or two.
Have you ever wondered what special kind of idiot loses a finger to a lawnmower?

Well, spend three goddamn days trying to start the thing. By “thing”, I mean an ancient, 40 lb gas mower with a pull cord and a throttle spring that’s so worn that it requires a flat end screwdriver stuck between the air filter and the motor to keep the fuel flowing. Then, wait until the moment arrives that you are faced with the decision to turn it off – and restart it – to fix something down there…

I also learned that a Black & Decker electric whippersnipper works just as well with the rear plastic guard removed. Indeed, customized in this manner, Whippersnippers are capable of 360 degree weed whacking. Just wear your boots.

Hot on the heels of UN condemnation of Israel for the destruction of homes of these refugees …
Bob Tarantino on the Sunday Toronto Star;

Anyways, on to my main man, Haroon Siddiqui. Haroon was very angry yesterday. He’s very grumpy about Israel destroying Palestinian homes. Now, personally, I think that imposing collective punishment on a group for the actions of individuals is, in most circumstances, grotesque. That being said, taking Hamas and Hizb’Allah at their word, Israel is in a state of war, so where the lines are drawn on these sorts of things gets moved around a bit. Besides which, I prefer to take the Naomi Kleinian view of the destruction of private property: it’s just legitimate resistance against globalization. What’s that? You don’t see the connection between Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes and opposition to corporate globalization? Funny, I don’t see the connection between a bunch of upper- middle-class white kids breaking McDonald’s windows while wearing their Nikes and opposition to corporate globalization, so I guess we’re about even.
Anyhoo, Haroon declares that Bush is supporting Israel in an effort “to win as many Jewish votes and donations away from Democrats as he can”. You know I can never keep this stuff straight: I thought the Jews ran the US government. If so, why does Bush need to win their votes? I’m so confused.

Go read the rest, he’s stringing them up, left and left – even the “Ombud”. That’s right – in the interests of stretching political correctness well past the point of absurdity, the Toronto Star has dropped the “man”.

A very good source friend in the provincial government bubbled enthusiastically a few years ago when the West Wing debuted. Why? As a provincial government communications employee, there was a striking similarity between the atmosphere portrayed in the fictionalized Clinton White House, and the workplace at Executive Council at the Saskatchewan legislature.
It was “real”.
So, when I read David Frum’s The Right Man, this passage made me smile a little.

“The television show The West Wing might as well have been set aboard a Klingon starship for all it resembled life inside the Bush White Hosue.

No special reason for posting that today. I was just reminded of it by the West Wing theme music that just came on upstairs. (And, according to Frum, nobody refers to Bush as “POTUS”, either.)

Globe and Mail;

One in five Canadian adolescents ages 12 to 15 has been drunk at least once, and has tried marijuana, according to a study released yesterday by Statistics Canada.
The study, based on interviews with more than 4,000 youths in that age group, found those most likely to use drugs and alcohol travelled with peers who also did so, had parents who nagged or were inconsistent about rules, and were more likely to be doing poorly in school.
Among those who had been intoxicated, the average age for their first time was a few months past their 13th birthday — around the same age they were most likely to sample their first joint. The likelihood of drinking and marijuana use increased with age; 66 per cent of 15-year-olds in the study reported consuming at least one drink and 38 per cent said they had smoked pot.

Ummmm… yeah. That’s about how I remember it.
Legal drinking age pretty much depended upon how far from your home town you were. I could drink in the Forget bar at 14, in Kisbey at 16 (the bar was across the street from the hall where we had high school dances, and would fill up during the band breaks).

Patrons’ vehicles, outside the Arcola Hotel, summer 2003.

You couldn’t get into the Arcola Hotel pub until you were of legal age, because everybody knew what grade you were in.

Not that it mattered. We had a private stock in the high school yearbook room. We drank lemon gin. Out of A&W root beer mugs.

and first prize is a side of Bison…
You might be in Saskatchewan.

Only two types of injuries are known in professional hockey – this one and this one.