Blago

"I did a lot of things that were mostly right."

- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, defending himself during his impeachment trial

Now that's the sound of desperation if I ever heard it. But aside from that, what amazes me is that he is still out there proclaiming his complete innoncence. Other parts of his closing statement include, "You haven’t proved a crime and you can’t because it hasn’t happened. How can you throw a governor out of office with incomplete or insufficient evidence?" He seems so completely certain of his innocence that I almost start to wonder if this has been some big misunderstanding. He is a pretty good liar and an evil genius.

I think he demonstrated his evil genius best after the Democrats vowed to barr entrance to anyone he nominated to the senate. So he chose Roland Burris. Matt Taibbi described him as "a 71-year-old, half-batty egomaniac named Roland Burris, the first black man elected to statewide office in Illinois...an over-the-top eccentric who refers to himself in the third person ("If there hadn't been a Roland Burris, there would not have been a Barack Obama") and who has already built for himself a mausoleum inscribed with the words TRAIL BLAZER." 

One more paragraph to borrow from Taibbi:

Americans were thus treated to the spectacle of two white Democrats physically refusing to open the Senate doors for what would have been the body's only black senator. To make matters worse, the Democratic leadership hung its entire case for barring Burris from office on a technicality: His appointment, they insisted, had not been certified by the Illinois secretary of state. When the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the Burris appointment was, in fact, legal, [Harry]Reid and [Dick] Durbin were left with a face full of omelet just weeks before Obama's inauguration.

The Democrats of course caved and seated Burris, saying, "oh no, we didn't expect Blago to nominate a respectable candidate." By choosing Burris, it made Blagojevich look like a reasonable guy since he was replacing Obama with another African American, and it made Reid and Durbin look like fools (but that was their own fault) since they seated him anyway, thereby giving credibility to Blagojevich. A stroke of evil genius.

NYC v Salt

Dr. Tom Frieden is taking it to the purveyors of salt. Seems like a difficult task, but one with potentially big public health benefits.

Bono

"This kind of spirit blows through every now and then. It's a very strange feeling. We're waiting for God to walk into the room - and God, it turns out, is very unreliable. So you don't have the right to imagine you can make a great album. But what you can do is create the conditions where it might happen."

- Bono, from U2, on making their new album No Line On The Horizon

This quotation pretty much captures what inspiration is all about, as far as I can tell anyway...."create the conditions where it might happen." Those are some words to live by.

Coffee Linked to Lower Dementia Risk

The story is at the NY Times. It's all observational though; no guarantees.

Fortune Cookies

"You will have many friends when you need them"

"You have an important new business development shaping up"

(yeah, I opened two cookies)

Beetlejuice

From Bradsucks:

Compare to original over here.

History

I noticed that the Daily Tar Heel has a thumbs up or thumbs down feature called Quick Hits. They gave the symbolic Obama train ride from Philadelphia to DC a sideways thumb, saying it was a bit "too theatrical and corny" for their taste. As a matter of fact, I agree; it's my understanding that it cost a ton of money to set up given the security concerns, but I can't find any figures for that off hand. The idea was to recreate Lincoln's journey to DC, which sounds symbolic, but also brings up hubris and opulence. Had it zero to little cost associated with it, I think it'd be fine, like how the mayor of New York, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, rides the subway to work (occasionally at least). I think the train ride was unnecessary. The fact that the country elected Obama is in itself very significant and symbolic. The fact that a couple million people attended the inauguration was significant and symbolic. Maybe everyone on the National Mall could have joined in song together. That would have been awesome, memorable, and free (or at least cheap). But adding in an expensive, phony train ride to DC is probably taking away from the history being made.

Presidents

Every time I hear something like, "the President took the oath of office," I just smile and feel happy. He's now "the President." Finally. The Iowa Caucuses were over a year ago. I feel quite proud to be an American. Over the last eigth years, I found my president to be an embarassment, and I was often quick to explain that he didn't speak for me whenever I traveled or met people from other countries. A part of me now feels a little sorry for Bush since he has finally shown some remorse and admitted some errors. Too bad he didn't admit errors earlier or have the foresight to know how wrong his direction was. A least, in admitting errors, he seems more sympathetic, like he was in over his head. Dick Cheney, on the other hand, remains defiant.

Different topic:

Interestingly enough, Obama, who has shown quick wit and skilled oration over the years, totally stumbled through the oath of office, with the help of stumbling Chief Justice John Roberts. I guess they both were a little nervous.

I also noticed that most news outlets were optimistic and excited about the election. So I went over to FoxNews to see what they were reporting. Some of the headlines conveyed this optimism, like "Historic Moment Cast as Victory of Hope Over Fear." Some commentators, however, like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck were skeptical. Hannity could be right that it is the most expensive inauguration ever, but he doesn't cite any numbers.

What was quite interesting to me was a piece about the unhealthiest presidents. Turns out JFK was a health disaster. Eisenhower was also in bad shape, and even developed Crohn's Disease while in office.

Atheists and Agnostics Put Message on Buses

The NY Times had an article about how 800 buses in Great Britain are now carrying atheist and agnostic messages. It's an interesting piece. Perhaps what struck me most were these quotes:

“I think it’s dreadful,” said Sandra Lafaire, 76, a tourist from Los Angeles, who said she believed in God and still enjoyed her life, thank you very much. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I don’t like it in my face.”

And from Richard Dawkins:

“Across Britain, we are used to being bombarded by religious interests,” he said, “not just Christians, but other religions as well, who seem to think that they have got a God-given right to propagandize.”