The Daily Brief

They don’t want our voices, they want their own. This from Jean-Claude Shande Tonme in the NYTimes:

We Africans know what the problem is, and no one else should speak in our name. Africa has men of letters and science, great thinkers and stifled geniuses who at the risk of torture rise up to declare the truth and demand liberty.

Don’t insult Africa, this continent so rich yet so badly led. Instead, insult its leaders, who have ruined everything. Our anger is all the greater because despite all the presidents for life, despite all the evidence of genocide, we didn’t hear anyone at Live 8 raise a cry for democracy in Africa.

Don’t the organizers of the concerts realize that Africa lives under the oppression of rulers like Yoweri Museveni (who just eliminated term limits in Uganda so he can be president indefinitely) and Omar Bongo (who has become immensely rich in his three decades of running Gabon)? Don’t they know what is happening in Cameroon, Chad, Togo and the Central African Republic? Don’t they understand that fighting poverty is fruitless if dictatorships remain in place?

Even more puzzling is why Youssou N’Dour and other Africans participated in this charade. Like us, they can’t help but know that Africa’s real problem is the lack of freedom of expression, the usurpation of power, the brutal oppression.

Neither debt relief nor huge amounts of food aid nor an invasion of experts will change anything. Those will merely prop up the continent’s dictators. It’s up to each nation to liberate itself and to help itself. When there is a problem in the United States, in Britain, in France, the citizens vote to change their leaders. And those times when it wasn’t possible to freely vote to change those leaders, the people revolted.

The special room created for this Fred Astaire classic was later employed in a video by Lionel Richie.

The major media is portraying the suspicions, that the London 7/7 attacks were suicide bombings, as something rather ominous, I see it quite differently: this is further evidence that we are winning. This is somewhat like Patton rolling into the Ardennes, and, seeing the horse-drawn wagon tracks, knew the Nazis were on their last legs. We must differentiate these attacks from America at 9/11/01, or Madrid, 11/03/04. We will see that these attacks are getting not simply less sophisticated. but also more desperate.

This is an enemy on its last legs.

Glenn Reynolds proclaims Eugene Volokh to be an ideal choice, not just for a spot on the Supreme Court bench, but Chief Justice. I couldn’t agree more.

Throughout the five or so years I have known Eugene, he has consistently impressed me as a legal scholar who could remain true to libertarian first principles, while remaining moderate, and respectful of the doctrine of stare decisis. Further, there is a strong movement afoot to appoint a non-judge to the Supreme bench. While Eugene has clerked for Justice O’Connor, as well as Federal Appeals Court Judge Alex Kozinski, I don’t believe he’s ever been a state or federal jurist himself.

So, is there a “Draft Eugene” website out there?

Following David’s link, below, on PBS’s reportage of the London bombings, I found this:

With the U.S. government projecting a $426 billion deficit this year, critics are blaming some of the red ink on the Medicare prescription drug benefit, which President Bush signed into law in December 2003. In 2004, when NOW first reported on the story, the original cost of the bill had ballooned from $400 billion to $534 billion. Where does it stand today? NOW looks at what the Medicare law is costing America.

But wait! That flies in the face of this from Bloomberg:

July 8 (Bloomberg) — Rising tax payments and a growing economy may push the U.S. federal deficit down to $325 billion or lower, a 24 percent decline from the previous estimate, the Congressional Budget Office said.

The agency, in a monthly snapshot for fiscal 2005 that ends on Sept. 30, said tax payments and spending were running ahead of the year-ago pace. As a result this year’s deficit “will be significantly less than $350 billion, perhaps below $325 billion.”

It seems as though someone at PBS’ NOW is fudging the numbers.

Update: To be fair, no matter what the federal deficit is, there is little doubt that a large portion of it is due to drug coverage.

I am currently watching The Anatomy of Sex on the Discovery Channel. And the question is posed: “why are women’s bodies designed for sex, when [by pregnancy, or any of a number of other factors], they are not in a position to conceive a child?

The answer seems obvious: to keep their men around. You might be ashamed to admit it, guys, but would you be true to your woman if she was only receptive to sexual activity when she was fertile?

This from Joy Sewing at the Houston Chronicle:

Now specialty shops can’t keep Oprah’s bra in stock, and women are flocking to stores to see whether they’re sized correctly.

“As soon as the (Oprah) show went off the air, our phones started ringing,” says Gerri Brown, a bra-fit expert at Top Drawer Lingerie in Uptown Park. “Many women are in denial about their bra size. They don’t want to admit they are actually larger than they thought.”

Finding a well-fitting bra isn’t always easy. There’s much to consider, from the size of the cup to the snugness of the fit. Bras that bind, straps that fall, breasts that spill over the cups, wires that pinch and dreaded back fat that squeezes over straps are all signs of ill-fitting bras.

Any women out there wanting bra-sizing advise – please email me. 🙂

BTW: Something about a journalist named “Joy Sewing” reporting on the garment industry I find quite funny.

Update: I just confered with a female friend, who tends to keep “abreast” of such matters, and this quote is the jist:

But some women shove them in too-small cups hoping to get the smooshed look, and then just get the fourple-boob look, where there’s a horizntal-type crease with bulge above and below. Not good.

Here’s a hint girls: this is, for-sure, not sexy.