Happy xmas!

So we've had this tree for a few weeks now. I think it held up really well and it looks great. It cost a little bit more than some other "trees", but it was totally worth it.

Unfortunately, xmas is over, but I definitely got quite a bit of SWAG. I will have a bragging post some time in the next few days where I show off all my new possessions. But for now, let me belatedly say, Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! Enjoy your vacations and try not to take your family for granted.

Um, guys, I smoked crack

This is pretty hilarious.

But, to be serious for a minute, this is excellent news. For twenty years the federal drug sentencing guidelines (which have up until recently been mandatory) have treated crack cocaine far more harshly than powder cocaine. Rich, young white people (e.g. the children of Congressmen) use powder cocaine, poor people (e.g. unemployed black men) use crack.

Of course, the Bush administration is against this. And the news doesn't help people who were sentenced to the "mandatory minimum" sentence required by Congress. So there's a long way to go yet.

Lead is the new Mercury

In the wake of some unsettling news about lipstick, there's a stunning new common-product-contains-lead revelation. This time, it's christmas lights.

So, if you're wondering how come you didn't crack 1300 on your SATs or why you're always the last one to get the joke, it's because you celebrated christmas with LEAD TAINTED LIGHT-BULBS...

My family also had the tradition of eating the bulbs after the holiday season ended. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be a common practice. But I am putting my foot down, I don't care how fun it is, stop eating christmas lights! I mean it!

Sports Analogy Attack!

Maureen Dowd has an op-ed piece in today's Times discussing the new NIE and Iran's non-existent nuclear weapons program. That's a big story. However, towards the end she un-ironically quotes some random analyst as saying this:

This is a slam-dunk reversal, admitting error. Now, when they play poker, they show their hands to each other, so they don’t get another curveball.

Holy mixed-metaphors! Basketball, cards, and baseball all in one statement. My sports-metaphor to english translator says:

This is a dramatic reversal, admitting error. Now, they're sharing information freely so they don't get another shock.

I can't help but hope he went on to say.

For Bush this is really a fourth-and-ten situation, he's not the World's Strongest Man right now so he really needs to bowl a strike. The press is off-to-the-races and ready to go twelve rounds. Now, the stall count is getting high, so he could just ice the puck and it's possible the press will just give him a let, but even then the odds that he'd hit a hole-in-one are not very sailboat.