The Rake Magazine

Never mind the science, here's the politics. Not content with denigrating the science behind any cogent understanding of evolutionary biology or global warming, now the Bushies are taking on medicine.

Despite the clear scientific evidence that marijuana has medicinal uses such as combating nausea in chemotherapy patients and pain and anorexia in AIDS patients, Bush wants the DEA and the political appointees at the FDA, not the National Academy of Sciences, to tell us what we ought to think.

Do you ever wonder what those guys in the administration are smoking?

Makes you wonder if the stoners at Macalester aren't really on to something.

Bill Gates thinks while he works. Who knew?

There's an interesting piece on the Fortune magazine site about how various accomplished people work.

One thing I noticed in particular is that so many of them work in a structured break time during the day, often including physical activity. I'm going to have to try that sometime.

Bill Gates takes a whole week each year as a "Think Week" in which he reviews the best ideas put before him by his employees. I presume that means he listens, weighs the merits, and then acts.

Can someone forward that idea to someone else we know in a high place? Maybe then he can get somewhere with the Chinese.

Cheney and Rummy: 31 years of listening only to each other

In case you haven't noticed, we're not winning in Iraq. It's not the military's fault, unless you fault them for not rising up, deposing Bush and Rumsfeld, and restoring the democracy that was taken from us in 2000. At any rate, the military has finally had enough, and is at least speaking out about what a boob Rumsfeld is.

An old friend, who was an actual combat soldier for years, said to me two years ago that Bush and Rumsfeld were idiots. "Anyone who's ever been in combat would never say 'Bring it on,'" he told me. "Anyone who's ever been in combat wants the enemy to take it somewhere else."

One day, Bush will wake up and realize he's been duped by Rummy, Cheney, and the rest. Or maybe not. In the meantime, our soldiers continue to pay the price. Bush buries his mistakes. America buries its sons and daughters.

We're voting for Michele

A Minnesota Senate committee yesterday voted to put a stop to Michele Bachmann's attempt to put a gay marriage ban amendment on the ballot this fall.

Before we get all weepy about it, let's remember what this actually means. A key Republican strategy is to fire up their base of right wing zealots to vote in elections they don't otherwise have much stake in. (After all, if you believe in Adam and Eve, you probably don't have much of a head for nuanced politics.) So the GOP tries to get the Fire and Brimstone Set to vote by making it all a referendum on whether we ought to rename Minnesota Sodom and Gomorrah.

And, who do those primates vote for? People like Michele Bachmann.

For Michele Bachmann, for God's sake--instead of for someone like Patty Wetterling, who has actually done more to keep families safe than Michele could possibly imagine?

This is similar to the one Mark Antony used

Just when you think George Bush can't get any stupider, this comes along. Oops, it seems George himself authorized the leak of classified information.

A Strib letter writer suggested this morning (several items down) "It doesn't matter with the Republican Party whether you are a congressman, a senator or the president -- if you cross the line, you fall on your sword."

Is releasing classified data for political purposes crossing the line, Mr. Letter Writer? Or do you want to redefine the virture of the Republicans some other way today?