Patterico's Pontifications

10/19/2007

Small Towns and their Statues

Filed under: Miscellaneous — DRJ @ 8:59 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

I love small towns where they agonize over how tall to build their statues of important people.

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FDA Re-evaluates Children’s Cold Medicines

Filed under: Government — DRJ @ 7:19 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Following last week’s restriction on the use of cold medicines in children under 2, an FDA panel issued a nonbinding recommendation against their use in children under 6 years of age:

The medicines long used by parents to treat their children’s coughs and colds don’t work and shouldn’t be used in those younger than 6, federal health advisers recommended Friday. The over-the-counter medicines should be studied further, even after decades in which children have received billions of doses a year, the outside experts told the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA isn’t required to follow the advice of its panels of outside experts but does so most of the time.

“The data that we have now is they don’t seem to work,” said Sean Hennessy, a University of Pennsylvania epidemiologist, one of the FDA experts gathered to examine the medicines sold to treat common cold symptoms. The recommendation applies to medicines containing one or more of the following ingredients: decongestants, antihistamines and antitussives. It doesn’t apply to expectorants, though many of the medicines also contain that ingredient.”

Why do I have the feeling these recommendations may be based on the same science that led to Britain’s legal intoxication standards?

— DRJ

The Art of Legal Intoxication Safe Drinking in Britain

Filed under: Political Correctness — DRJ @ 6:21 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Hiccup.

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It’s SueEasy to Avoid Solicitation Rules

Filed under: Law — DRJ @ 3:30 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

One online website has found a novel way to help potential litigants find the right attorney.

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Did Chris Matthews Run Over Jack Shafer’s Dog????

Filed under: General — WLS @ 12:53 pm



[Posted by WLS]

Jack Shafer has a hit-piece today in Slate on Chris Matthews getting a lifetime achievement award from the Churchill Centre.

Much of the info may be well known to others, and I knew some of it.  But I had never before seen the passage Shafer quotes from the book Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants by Vanity Fair contributor James Wolcott:

Matthews manages to outrace his contradictory statements by blustering so many excitable things so fast and so often that pinning down the discrepancies is like trying to grab a gust of wind by the tail. He isn’t a cynical dissembler. He seems to suffer from some pundit variant of short-term memory loss. Each day on earth erases the days before. He says what he believes and believes what he says, and has the liberating advantage of always working from a blank sheet.

I’m not a big fan of Wolcott’s stuff in VF, but that is a great line about Matthews. 

The poor guy is getting some simple award from an outfit that few have even heard of, and even fewer will remember the award.  But Shafer sees it as an excuse to hand him from a yardarm.

How Else Can You Describe Harry Reid Other Than To Call Him A Liar?

Filed under: Politics — WLS @ 12:19 pm



[Posted by WLS] 

The letter Harry Reid sent to the head of Clear Channel Communications sold on E-Bay for more than $2 million this morning.  The letter was part of the “phony soldier” canard ginned up by the Dems as a response to the blowback suffered by MoveOn.Org after the “General Betray-Us” ad in the NYT.

Reid’s letter — a lame substitute for the GOP sponsored Senate Resolution that denounced the MoveOn ad with  72 votes, including 25 Dems — garnered only the signatures of 42 Dems and 0 Reps.

Among the comments in Reid’s letter were the following:

…Rush Limbaugh’s recent characterization of troops who oppose the war as “phony soldiers” is such an outrage.

Our troops are fighting and dying to bring to others the freedoms that many take for granted.  It is unconscionable that Mr. Limbaugh would criticize them for exercising the fundamentally American right to free speech. Mr. Limbaugh has made outrageous remarks before, but this affront to our soldiers is beyond the pale.

….it is clear that Mr. Limbaugh’s insult is directed at thousands of American service members.

Thousands of active troops and veterans were subjected to Mr. Limbaugh’s unpatriotic and indefensible comments on your broadcast. We trust you will agree that not a single one of our sons, daughters, neighbors and friends serving overseas is a “phony soldier.” We call on you to publicly repudiate these comments that call into question their service and sacrifice and to ask Mr. Limbaugh to apologize for his comments.

This morning, after it was clear that Rush had absolutely humiliated the Dems who signed the letter by putting the original up for auction, and raising $2 million that will go to a Marine families survivor fund, Reid goes to the Senate floor and makes the following statement: 

REID: MADAM PRESIDENT, EARLY THIS MONTH I CAME TO THE FLOOR TO DISCUSS SOME COMMENTS MADE BY RUSH LIMBAUGH. FOLLOWING MY REMARKS, MORE THAN 40 OF MY SENATE COLLEAGUES AND I CO-SIGNED A LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF CLEAR CHANNEL, MARK MAY, TELLING HIM THAT WE WANTED HIM TO CONFER WITH RUSH LIMBAUGH REGARDING THE }  STATEMENTS HE MADE. I’VE SINCE SPOKEN TO MARK MAY ABOUT THIS. MARK MAY, IN FACT, CALLED ME REGARDING THIS LETTER. THIS WEEK, RUSH LIMBAUGH PUT THE ORIGINAL COPY OF THAT LETTER UP FOR AUCTION ON E-BAY. MR. PRESIDENT, WE DIDN’T HAVE TIME, OR WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN EVERY SENATOR TO SIGN THAT LETTER. BUT HE PUT THE LETTER UP FOR AUCTION ON E-BAY AND I THINK VERY, VERY CONSTRUCTIVELY, LEFT THE PROCEEDS OF THAT IT GO TO THE MARINE CORPS LAW ENFORCEMENTS FOUNDATION. THAT PROVIDES SCHOLARSHIP ASSISTANCE TO MARINES AND FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL WHOSE PARENTS FALL IN THE LINE OF DUTY. WHAT COULD BE A MORE WORTHWHILE CAUSE? I THINK IT’S REALLY GOOD THAT THIS MONEY ON E-BAY IS GOING TO BE RAISED FOR THIS PURPOSE. WHEN I SPOKE TO MARK MAYIC HE AND I THOUGHT THIS PROBABLY WOULDN’T MAKE MUCH MONEY, A LETTER WRITTEN BY DEMOCRATIC SENATORS COMPLAINING ABOUT SOMETHING.  THIS MORNING, THE BID IS MORE THAN $2 MILLION FOR THIS. WE HAVE WATCHED IT DURING THE WEEK. IT KEEPS GOING UP-AND-UP AND UP. THERE’S ONLY A LITTLE BIT OF TIME LEFT ON IT. BUT IT CERTAINLY IS GOING TO BE MORE THAN $2 MILLION. NEVER DID WE THINK THAT THIS LETTER WOULD BRING MONEY OF THIS NATURE. AND, FOR THE CAUSE, MADAM PRESIDENT, IT IS EXTREMELY GOOD. NOW, EVERYONE KNOWS THAT RUSH LIMBAUGH AND I DON’T AGREE ON EVERYTHING IN LIFE AND MAYBE THAT IS KIND OF AN UNDERSTATEMENT. BUT WITHOUT QUALIFICATION MARK MAY, THE OWNER OF THE NETWORK THAT HAS RUSH LIMBAUGH AND RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOULD KNOW THAT THIS LETTER THAT THEY’RE AUCTIONING IS GOING TO BE SOMETHING THAT RAISES MONEY FOR A WORTHWHILE CAUSE. I DON’T KNOW WHAT WE COULD DO MORE IMPORTANT THAN HELPING TO ENSURE THAT CHILDREN OF OUR FALLEN SOLDIERS AND POLICE OFFICERS WHO HAVE FALLEN IN THE LINE OF DUTY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR THEIR CHILDREN TO HAVE A GOOD EDUCATION. THINK OF THIS, MORE THAN $2 MILLION — THAT WILL REALLY HELP. THAT’S, AGAIN, AN UNDERSTATEMENT. THERE’S ONLY A LITTLE BIT OF TIME LEFT SO I WOULD ASK THOSE THAT ARE WANTING TO DO MORE, THAT THEY CAN GO TO HARRY REID LETTER AND IT WILL COME UP ON E-BAY. I ENCOURAGE ANYONE INTERESTED WITH THE MEANS  TO CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING TO THIS WORTHWHILE CAUSE. I STRONGLY BELIEVE WHEN WE CAN PUT OUR DIFFERENCES ASIDE, EVEN HARRY REID AND RUSH LIMBAUGH, WE SHOULD DO THAT AND TRY TO ACCOMPLISH GOOD THINGS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. THIS DOES THAT, MADAM PRESIDENT. MORE THAN $2 MILLION FOR A LETTER SIGNED BY THIS SENATOR AND MY FRIENDS.   

Harry Reid is either the dumbest person ever elected to the Senate, or he’s simply a bald-faced liar.

I actually think both are true. 

Chuck Schumer must break things in his office behind closed doors. 

  

This is just wrong on so many levels. Much research to follow, but just let the implications settle in.

Filed under: 2008 Election — WLS @ 11:19 am



[Posted by WLS] 

Story from the LA Times.

I spent sometime working with an Asian Organized Crime Strike Force back in the day, and I was stunned at how organized and entrenched the Chinese groups were in big cities like LA, SF, NY, and Chicago. The immigrant populations in these cities are completely dominated by these organizations. There is simply no doubt that all or nearly all this money is dirty.

And Hillary could care less because dirty money spends just as easy as clean money when she’s buying ad spots or paying out street money.

This isn’t immigrant bashing. It’s simply a call to citizens to understand that every dirty dollar raised and spent cancels out a clean dollar, and every illegal vote cast by an illegal immigrant cancels out a legitimate vote cast by a citizen.

We’re surrendering our democracy one dollar and one vote at a time.

P.S. I must say that I’m surprised at the efforts by the LAT to whack Hillary. The LAT and WSJ went after the Hsu affair first, and now the LAT is onto this. They are really scrutinizing her donor lists. Are they in the bag for Obama at the behest of the Hollywood establishment?

Bhutto’s Return marred by Suicide Bombs

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 11:05 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan yesterday amid cheering crowds at the Karachi airport but her homecoming was marred by suicide bombs that killed 136 people and wounded 250.

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18-year-old Poised to Pass the Bar

Filed under: Law — DRJ @ 10:20 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

If eighteen-year-old Kathleen Holtz passes the California bar exam, and she’s confident she did, she’ll be the youngest licensed lawyer in California and perhaps the nation.

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A Verdict in the Holy Land Foundation Trial

Filed under: Law,Terrorism — DRJ @ 9:28 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

The jury in the Holy Land Foundation terror trial in Dallas has been deliberating for 19 days and has reached a verdict that will be read Monday.

Background posts on the Holy Land Foundation trial are here and here.

— DRJ

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