GEORGE MICHAEL GETS THOROUGHLY WHAMMED by the big Bleat of that boss jock, James Lileks.

PLENTY FOR NFL COACHES TO WORRY ABOUT IN THE SUMMERTIME, according to ESPN's John Clayton.

BAD HAIRCUTS: Yet another reason to not like soccer.

SENATE REJECTS MUSLIM GARB FOR U.S. SERVICEWOMEN in Saudi Arabia, in a 93-0 vote, according to CNSNews.com.

THE VERY DEFINITION OF PARENTAL STUPIDITY, found on Group Captain Mandrake's Weblog.

"JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE OUT TO GET YOU DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE NOT PARANOID". Steve Den Beste analyses the powder keg combination of nuclear weapons, stupidity and suspicion that is the government of North Korea.

MEN DO TALK ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS: Also according to SatireWire.

Unfortunately, this one is true.

OBESE PASSENGERS DEMAND RIGHT TO EAT PERSON IN NEXT SEAT, according to this story on SatireWire.

Don't worry, it's probably false.

ARIZONA ARSON SUSPECT IS A FIREFIGHTER.

Gee, this has a familiar ring to it.

UPDATE: Amy Langfield flashes back to a late '80s arsonist with a similar background.

UPDATE: Here's more information on the suspect.

I wonder what Ray Bradbury makes of all of this?

AMERICAN UNILATERALISM: Another nuance of Bush's speech last Monday explored by Steve Den Beste on the newly redesigned USS Clueless

(I like the new "screen" design on the Clueless. It has sort of a Star Trek-retro look to it, as if it should be on Captain Pike's Enterprise. And yes, I'm embarrassed by the fact that I'm enough of a Trekkie to know what the different viewscreens on the various Enterprises look like.)

SINGER ROSEMARY CLOONEY DIES AT AGE 74.

THE FAT TAX: Coming soon to a McDonald's near you, according to SpinTech.

BRITISH GUN CONTROL RUN AMOK, as discovered by Group Captain Lionel Mandrake.

ANOTHER EU DOUBLE STANDARD discovered by Andrew Stuttaford on National Review Online's The Corner.

VEILED THREAT: religeon meets government at the DMV in this article by Jacob Sullum.

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS: Marvin Olasky on Republicans and Hispanic voters.

THE BEERS ACROSS AMERICA CARAVAN (AKA the Blogger formally known as Sgt. Stryker, and his family) has made it to Travis AFB in Northern California.

JOHN FUND has some thoughts on the Supreme Court's school choice decision.

YOU DON'T SPIT INTO THE WIND: Ananova reports on a first-time flyer on China Southern Airlines who tried to a open the plane's emergency exit to spit after it had taken off.

TELEMARKETER SAVES HIKER'S LIFE, according to this post on BoingBoing.net. (And yes, it really does feel silly typing "BoingBoing.net".)

ARE JUDGES POLITICIANS? Ruth Bader Ginsburg says they're not. Orrin Judd disagrees.

WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY: The Who will continue their summer tour, as The Who, despite John Entwistle's death yesterday, and the fact that only two of their members (Pete Townshend and Roger Daltry) are left, according to Eric Olsen, who has posted a press release from Bill Curbishley, The Who's longtime manager.

At least they waited a while to go back on tour when Keith Moon croaked in '78.

AN ENGLISH REPERTORY COMPANY IS CHANGING the name of Victor Hugo's classic "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" for their stage adaptation, so as not to offend the handicapped. The new title? "The Bellringer of Notre Dame".

Take it away, Group Captain Mandrake!

DOES THAT MEAN THAT DEMS NOW BLAME THE 1980s ON CLINTON? Gore Bashes Bush Policy As Cause of Biz Scandals.

SEATTLE SEEN AS 'EASY TARGET' by terrorists, according to the FBI.

Hey, it's relatively near a coast, has a high crime rate, it's had to call in state troopers and the National Guard to ward off scads of globalization protestors, and it's the home of Starbucks.

Say, I wonder what these guys think about all this?

COLOR ME RED: Nick Shulz looks at doctored global warming documents designed solely to scare the public.

Empirical science, rest in peace. We hardly knew ye.

THE FRIEDKIN/STONE SMACKDOWN: The Internet Movie Database says:

Oscar-winning movie-maker William Friedkin has hit out at Oliver Stone after Stone defended Palestinian suicide bombers. In a recent interview with Daily Variety magazine, Stone called Israeli settlers "vigilantes" and suggested a third party is sent into the area to restore peace. But his comments incensed Friedkin, who - according to gossip website Pagesix.Com - immediately fired off a letter to the Variety editor. The letter reads, "If Mr. Stone and I were in a land dispute, I would not be justified in murdering him or his friends and relations." And in response to Stone's third party idea, Friedkin snipes, "Will Mr. Stone volunteer his son or daughter to become part of this force?"

MORE ON THE OX: Glenn Reynolds and Orrin Judd were kind enough to link to my early news about John Entwistle’s death, however, I said very little that’s personal in that post. And invariably, when a celebrity dies, the writer feels compelled to mention how that celebrity affected him. It’s seemingly especially important in a Web log!

But I’m always a little reticent to discuss rock music on my blog, for fear that I’ll end up sounding like a bad parody of Creem or Circus magazine (the worst of all possible worlds). And like my father and his endless and authoritative collection of ‘30s through ‘50s Big Band music, I feel like I’ve become stuck in my own musical Mobius loop, as very little of what I hear on the radio these days inspires me to buy new music. And also, there’s a little bit of a Groucho Marx syndrome—since I played and recorded rock music for much of the 1980s, it’s tough to get that excited about a genre that I can actually play! (While I’m primarily a guitarist, I have played bass from time to time, and recently brought my old Fender Precision Bass back to California from my parents’ house to record with. And naturally, I restrung it with Rotosound strings, because that’s the brand that Entwistle helped develop.)

As a teenager, The Who were an exciting band for me. In my pre-teens, I quickly went through both the 1960s’ and the 1970s’ cartoon bands: The Monkees and Kiss (although the Monkees did have good songs, and Mike Nesmith in particular was a talented musician—but that’s an essay for another post). Then, when I was about 12, I figured it might be a good time for me to check out those Beatles fellows—they seemed popular at school (this was the mid-‘70s), and wrote lots of songs I heard on the radio. And I think the TV movie version of Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter aired a couple of times around then. This began my long fascination with 1960s and '70s English rock groups (paralleled by my later interest in late '50s and early '60s cool jazz.)

In 1978, The Who released Who Are You, with its best selling title song, Keith Moon died, and their documentary The Kids Are Alright was playing the midnight movie circuit (back when there was a midnight movie circuit). I wouldn’t see the movie until the early 80s (I think I spent a little high school graduation money on the videotape), but buying the double LP soundtrack and reading the hagiographic liner notes of the accompanying illustrated booklet was definitely a fascinating experience.

These four musicians had fundamentally changed what rock and roll should sound like: Pete Townshend experimented radically, first with feedback and “power chords” on his guitar, and later with song structures far beyond the typical I-IV-V chord progressions and verse/chorus/bridge/solo/verse/chorus progression of most rock songs. His material also forced Roger Daltry to develop into one the great singers in rock. And Daltry's solo albums, unlike Townshend's, have never equalled his best moments with The Who.

Keith Moon of course was the quintessential madman drummer, seemingly never repeating a bar of music that he played.

And Entwistle completely transformed the bass. Having to fill the huge instrumental holes that a power trio typically has, he somehow, intuitively knew that he had to play the bass very differently from its typical background role. He pioneered three key changes in its sound: he plugged it into some of the first Marshall Amplifiers, and then strung it with roundwound, instead of the more traditional flatwound strings. The result was an instrument that was not quite a guitar, but also was far, far removed from the traditional thump thump thump warm thudding background role of the bass. It was now the bass as a bright, distorted, trebly sounding lead instrument. (Paul McCartney was playing some of the first melodic bass playing with the Beatles around the same time, but he still used a very traditional sound. Entwistle’s sound began precisely where Townshend’s distorted SGs and Les Pauls ended, especially live.)

The third major change that Entwistle brought to the bass was a fearless ability to improvise and solo (“Can You See The Real Me” from Quadrophenia
is his classic recorded solo While Townshend bashes out fairly pedestrian chords, Entwistle’s fingers traverse the entire range of his bass’s fretboard—and then some. Few bassists were willing to go as far up their instrument’s neck as Entwistle was). As I said in my previous post, watch any concert footage of the Who, and try to spot the confusion in the cameraman or the director, when he can’t figure out who’s actually soloing—Townshend or Entwistle. There’s something that sounds like an electric guitar, but lower, but it’s certainly not a traditional bass!

I saw The Who live only once—on their first Farewell Tour, in 1983, from the bleachers at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia with several friends from my senior high school class. (Classic rock concert moment: sometime during the afternoon, not too long before The Who went on, an unspeakably stoned teenage girl wandered over to an open spot in our row, sat down, and prominently tossed all of her cookies, and probably all of the cookies of every Keebler elf onto the concrete in front of us. You won’t get excitement like that when you see Bobbie Short at the Carlyle!)

With Kenny Jones replacing the late Moon on drums, by then the Who were pros—the excitement and raggedness of the Keith Moon days were long gone, but it was a good show nonetheless. And they were still a working band in those days—recording new music and touring, unlike what they became in the late ‘80s and ‘90s: a nostalgia act, exciting to be sure, but musically static.

The Who’s career long seemed effectively over, and was, with the release of their last studio album in the early 80s. Like a dying sun, we were simple witnessing the afterglow of their glory. Entwistle will be missed, but his place in rock music history is secure. And hopefully he and Keith Moon are reunited, both to play as one of rock’s great rhythm sections, and to destroy hotel rooms in the great Continental “Riot House” in the sky.

UPDATE: Brink Lindsey reminisces about meeting Entwistle personally and watching him perform an impromptu jam. And Eric Olsen, himself a music producer, has some thoughts.

UPDATE: Brink Lindsey, who was at the same concert I attended, says it was September of '82. Hey, at least I got it within a year!

BILLBOARD'S EDITOR DIES AT AGE 50. Timothy White, the bow-tie wearing editor of Billboard, and the author of several books on pop music, also had a heart attack.

TWO IRANIAN UN WORKERS EXPELLED, according to ABCNEWS.com:

Sources told ABCNEWS that the two Iranians were seen five days ago videotaping the Brooklyn Bridge, the entrance to the tunnels into Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. The men, who have been in the United States only four months and are described as security workers for the mission, were stopped and questioned by New York police, sources said, but were not arrested because of their diplomatic immunity.

U.S. officials plan to expel the men for suspicious activities, some of which are related to irregularities in their identification documents, sources said.

FLASHBACK: Peggy Noonan has written about other suspicious New York videotaping, way back in October.

No word yet from ABC on when Peter Jennings will be expelled back to Canada, however.

NEED SUMMER READING MATERIAL? Check out this list, from the Brothers Judd, plus their guest comments.

But after reading to the article they link to that does a pretty good ex post facto Fisking of John Steinbeck, you might want to skip The Grapes of Wrath.

HATE THE HAMSTER DANCE? Put the little buggers out of their misery!

(Link courtesy of my wife. God knows where she found it...)

JOHN ENTWISTLE, legendary bass player for The Who, was reported dead on local San Jose/San Francisco radio stations while I was in the car. He was 57, and died in Las Vegas, of causes not yet reported. The Who were apparently planning to begin a tour of the US tomorrow.

Entwistle was an extremely talented bassist (and horn player) who helped turn the electric bass into a lead instrument with The Who. The lead bassists of the late '60s and '70s (Stanley Clarke, Chris Squire, etc.) built on the concepts of melodic soloing, high powered amplification and distortion that Entwistle was an early pioneer of. (Many times during early Who videos or films, the cameraman would unthinkingly keep their lens aimed at guitarist Pete Townshend, while Entwistle would actually be soloing on his bass.)

I'll be curious as to the causes--I never thought of Entwistle as a hard partying, hard drinking and drugging sort of fellow, unlike his partner in rhythm in the early days of The Who, Kieth Moon.

UPDATE: Here's an AP article that says "Entwistle died of a heart attack – 'nothing suspicious,' Clark County fire spokesman Bob Leinbach said."

My dad is tremendous fan of big bands of the 1930s and '40s. In the past few years, I've begun to understand how he must have felt in the 1960s and '70s when so many of heroes (Duke, Basie, Crosby, etc.) started to drop in fairly regular succession.

THE SUPREME'S SCHOOL CHOICE DECISION, analyzed by Joanne Jacobs.

COURT PUTS PLEDGE RULING ON HOLD.

THE DIGITAL BITS REVIEWS the DVD collection of Star Trek: The Next Generation's third season.

COMING TO DVD: A restored version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

UNDER GOD AND DIVISIBLE: Joshua Clayborn of The Hoosier Review's take. He also has more on his own blog.

HOUSE COMMITTEE APPROVES GUNS IN COCKPITS, says FOXNews.com But...look who's blocking it in the Senate:

In the Senate, the task has been made more difficult by the opposition of Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., whose panel has jurisdiction over the issue. But proponents say they will try to bypass the committee and offer the provision as an amendment to another bill.

WHY DOES THE LEFT SUPPORT PALESTINE? Dennis Prager has some answers.

FOOD FIGHT! James Taranto, in the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web, finds a slightly different kind of warfare going on in the Middle East:

The Lebanon Daily Star reports on the latest clashes between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon border:

Israel's Maariv daily reported Tuesday that Israeli soldiers based in the massive concrete compound on the summit of Sheikh Abbad Hill hurled eggs Monday at two Hizbullah fighters manning an observation post on the other side of the fence. . . .

The egg-throwing was preceded Saturday by four Lebanese hurling Ping Pong balls at the outpost. A few days earlier, a suspected Hizbullah member fired a paint gun through the fence at an Israeli soldier.

Good thing "zero tolerance" hasn't come to the Middle East.

Back in the beginning of January, the mysterious, not to mention hilarious Uthant wrote an article headlined "BUSH TO FLORIDA: YOU'RE EITHER WITH US..."

Today, Josh Devon and Evan Kohlmann want to know why Florida is such an incubator of terrorism.

SENATE PASSES RESOLUTION AGAINST PLEDGE RULING, according to CNSnews.com. Even Daschle and Boxer!

Members of Congress also react.

THE BAD NEWS BEARS: In lighter news, Yahoo! Sports says don't expect the Monsters of the Midway to be monsters this year.

NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE THIS.

And it couldn't have happened in a more appropriate city. Way to go, you nutty atheists.

UPDATE: Consider the court. (And scroll up from there, for more opinions from NRO.)

UPDATE: Here's an updated article from AP, with some thoughts on what happens next.

ORRIN JUDD WEIGHS IN, with the actual text of the Constitution, something the 9th Circuit Court may want to re-familiarize themselves with.

Here's CNSnews.com's take.

UPDATE: Don't laugh too hard, because based on today, this could happen.

AMERICA DOESN'T NEED AMTRAK, according to blogger Patrick Ruffini, in a Guest Comment in National Review Online.

BIPARTISAN SMACKDOWN: All seven living former Solicitors General just gave Patrick Leahy a stern rebuke when he tried to access secret Justice Department documents regarding Miguel Estrada, nominated for a seat of the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia. according to Byron York on National Review Online, who writes:

Last month, apparently dissatisfied with examining that record, Leahy made an unprecedented demand. He asked the Justice Department to hand over the internal legal recommendations that Estrada wrote while in the Solicitor General's office from 1992 to 1997. A few weeks later, the Justice Department declined, calling the documents "highly privileged."

Now, all seven living former Solicitors General have written Leahy a letter warning him of the dangers of such an inquiry. The letter, delivered on Tuesday, was written by Seth Waxman, who served as Solicitor General under Bill Clinton. It was sent to Leahy on behalf of not only Waxman but of Walter Dellinger and Drew Days III, who also held the post under Clinton; Kenneth Starr, who held it under the first President Bush; Charles Fried, who was Solicitor General under President Reagan; Robert Bork, who served under President Nixon; and Archibald Cox, who served under President Kennedy.

Meanwhile, York also writes that Republican maverick John McCain has joined the Democratic war on Bush nominees.

"WARCHALKING" marks the Wi-Fi 'hot spots'.

RANDALL CUNNINGHAM, who had some great years as a quarterback for the Eagles and Vikings, is planning to retire, according to this ESPN.com article.

MELANCHOLY PHOTO SEQUENCE of the USS Coral Sea being retired and scrapped is linked to by Group Captain Lionel Mandrake.

NOAM ALONE: Pejman Yousefzadeh smacks down Noam Chomsky in TechCentralStation.

THE BOSS MEETS 9/11: Bruce Springsteen has a new album in the works, with the E Street Band in tow and a single that tries Springsteen says tries to capture "an emotional feeling … in the air at that time." (That time being September 11.)

NEW DIABETES TREATMENTS: This New York Daily News article says that there could be an end to needles.

EXCLUSIVE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE COLORADO FIRE: online at VodkaPundit.

WHITHER NATO? On TechCentralStation's new European branchline.

W-CDMA: Another interesting wireless technology that's coming soon to the US.

THE GREATEST FILM NEVER MADE: Stanley Kubrick's plans for Napoleon to be published.

This would have been the follow-up to first 2001: A Space Odyssey and later A Clockwork Orange, but Stanley could never get funding sufficient to do it on the scale he envisioned. (Using some of the research he gleaned in planning Napoleon Kubrick eventually made Barry Lyndon, a historical film of a (slightly) smaller scope--as rich looking as Napoleon no doubt would have been, but not needing the zillions of extras and endless vistas that Napoleon's battle scenes would have required).

WEARABLE WI-FI: the wave of the future for 802.11?

Sorry for the lack of postings today. Nina (aka Mrs. Edward Driscoll) is in New York for a few days while her mom gets out of the hospital after recovering from a nasty fall. Meanwhile, a friend and I picked up some furniture and a couple of used PCs from an auction in San Francisco. Nina needs some extra gear as she's moving her office in early July.

This auction, which ran through most of last Friday was astonishing. Apparently, it's all from one failed dot.com startup--which probably failed because they didn't do any work. Judging by the gear being auctioned, some poor venture capitalist is probably thinking "Jesus! That's where my money got pissed away!"

Why? Imagine a business start-up with: a multi-person Jacuzzi, 20 ab-rollers (the kind sold on late-night TV infommercials), a ping pong table, a BMX mountain bike(??!!), multiple sets of steak knives, numerous high-end pieces of Herman Miller furniture and God-knows what else.

I always thought a business was lean and mean and hungry until it went public, or at least was self-sufficient. No wonder so many dot.coms tanked in the '90s: you don't start living large until you've had some success. (Pick up the DVD of Startup.com to see this kind of fuzzy-headed business thinking in action. Of course, those guys were at least smart enough to get a fairly successful documentary out of their tanked business.)

UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg has some thoughts on the Go-Go Nineties and the dot-coms that came, bought hot tubs and ab-rollers and went in his latest column.

COMMUTING WITH THE J-LO WANNABES: Breakfast of Champions had an interesting trip into work today...

WOBBLIE WATCH: Stephen Green says it "isn’t dead, but it is on life support" after Bush's speech.

OLIVER STONE MEETS HAPPY FUN PUNDIT. As does Norman Mineta.

Need I say more?

MISSING IN ACTION: Craig Schamp says the Chronicle is MIA on a great story right in front of their noses. And he's right.

(Link via the omnipresent InstaPundit.)

THE BUSH PLAN: Lots of good stuff on Bush's very pro-Israel speech from Steve Den Beste. Check this post out, and this one.

THE PROGRAMMING SOVIET, aka "Command Line Zealots", from Tech Central Station.

THE 120 GIG HARD DRIVE: Coming from Seagate.

HOW GOOD NEWS MAY HAVE KILLED THE MESSENGER: Pim Fortuyn and radical environmentalists in Tech Central Station.

SAN FRANCISCO POLICE LET SUSPECT GO, citizen collars him.

I can't help but think that a Guliani-like mayor could achieve wide support in San Francisco, a city that more and more seems to resemble Bonfire of the Vanities-era New York.

LARRY SUMMERS, CLOSET CONSERVATIVE? Asks this National Review Online essay.

Well, no. But Harvard's president doesn't sound like the stereotypical leftist academic, either.

PART III OF ERIC RAYMOND'S SERIES ON RADICAL ISLAMISM IS NOW ONLINE. Click over to his blog to read it.

WELL, IT TAKES CHUTZPAH TO EVEN SAY IT: Arab News likens the Palestinians to Anne Frank. Click over to Group Captain Lionel Mandrake to see the article--and then look at the photo below that post.

ABC: ENVIRONMENTAL LAWSUITS HELPED CAUSE COLORADO FIRE. Found at the Media Research Center:

ABC’s Bill Redeker actually specifically listed “environmental lawsuits” as one of the culprits for the huge fires in Colorado.

Redeker explained on the June 20 World News Tonight: "The fires this year are large because the forests are a hundred times more dense than a century ago. A policy to extinguish all fires at all cost has kept them from naturally thinning the forests.... Another reason, environmental lawsuits, which have kept the Forest Service from cutting down trees."

Viewers then heard a supporting soundbite from U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, Republican from Colorado, of the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health: "It isn't the Forest Service sitting on their duff in the office. Frankly, it's the litigation that's going on."

THE HUSTLER is the subject of Roger Ebert's latest Great Movies essay. Read it--and then wonder why Hollywood doesn't make films like this anymore.

CAPTAIN SCOTT FISKS WARBLOGGER WATCH and finds him (or them) cooking the books when it comes to Israeli/Palestinian statistics and their meaning.

SPORTS THEME? I doubt it was intentional, but the weekend version of the USS Clueless sounds like ESPN's SportsCenter. There are posts on world championship soccer, plus crazed golfers and jetskiers!

COMPETITION: Group Captain Lionel Mandrake has blogging competition coming from the same "little one-horse-town-by-the-sea on the English Channel" that he resides in! (Cue the Internet version of "It's a Small World, After All".)

CONGRATULATIONS! It's been nine years since Andrew Sullivan was tested positive for HIV, and today he's not only alive, but:

My bloodwork just came back again from the doc and showed that my CD4 cell count (the rough measure of the health of my immune system) is actually higher than it was nine years ago. And I've been off medications for a whole year! It seems as if my own immune system is managing to keep the virus at bay on its own. It probably won't last for ever, but it's a huge blessing not to be on those debilitating, disfiguring drugs.

THE FIRST DIVORCE LINKED TO SEPTEMBER 11: Found on The Volokh Conspiracy.

WHAT AL-QAEDA WANTS: Part Two of Eric Raymond's series is now online.

AID TO AFRICA HELPS FIGHT TERRORISM, according to Stanley Crouch.

BUSH'S JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS HELD UP FOR 406 days and counting, according to this CNSnews.com report.

NOVAK: MINETA GONE? The Prince of Darkness may have some good news. Bob Novak says:

The most likely member of the Bush Cabinet to be the first to depart is its only Democrat: Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, a former congressman from California.

When Mineta was unveiled as a surprise Bush Cabinet member, the Transportation Department appeared a relatively stress-free government agency. It has been near the forefront of the war against terrorism since Sept. 11, and Mineta has seemed overwhelmed, in the opinion of colleagues. At 70, he is not in the best of health.

A footnote: Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, unlikely to head the new Homeland Security Cabinet department, is talked about as a successor to Mineta. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson would have preferred Transportation when he resigned as governor of Wisconsin after the 2000 elections.

YES, MY BALLS ARE THIS BIG. And apparently, so are Donald Rumsfeld's.

NPR GETS SLAPPED UPSIDE THE HEAD, courtesy of Tres Producers.

ANN LANDERS DIED. Here's the AP report.

AMTRAK WARNS ABOUT LOOMING SHUTDOWN according to this Washington Post article.

Outside of the Northeast Corridor, I suspect this "warning" is being taken with a collective yawn. Inside the Corridor, I'm sure that Septa, NJ Transit, the Long Island Rail Road and other commuter lines can temporarily boost traffic to make up the slack of shutdown trains. And while commuters would face some shuffling of their plans, wouldn't it be worth some temporary discomfort to have come out of it with the federal government out of the railroad business?

GREASE IS THE WORD: Fans of John Travolta's late 70s and early 80s dance films Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Urban Cowboy and Stayin' Alive, will soon be able to experience disco bliss at home, because they're coming to DVD, according to The Digital Bits.

And Flashdance, the film that made the luscious Jennifer Beals a superstar (for a time) and sweatshirts pulled down to the shoulder a fad (for a time--thankfully one that has passed) is also coming to DVD.

CHRISTOPHER CROSS DOESN'T WANT TO BE LINKED TO. Sorry Chris.

THE NEW MODERATES? Patrick Ruffini sees a change coming in black elected officials.

Sorry Cynthia.

WHY AREN'T THERE ANY DECENT AIR FORCE MOVIES? Paul Palubicki wants to know.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF YASIR ARAFAT, by David Brooks. Click over and read that lying is not something that's new to Arafat.

I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS: But apparently, PriceWaterhouseCoopers' consulting division does, according to Lionel Mandrake--who also notes that they forgot to register the UK URL of their new name--and hilarity ensues. (Make sure to visit the .UK URL that GC Mandrake links to.)

THE REPORT ON MINORITY REPORT, by Captain Scott, broadcasting from his Electric Love Bunker.

UPDATE: From the (hopefully) slightly more staid Weekly Standard, Jonathan Last also weighs in.

TEAMSTERS--they're not just for Democrats now, according to this article by Donald Lambro.

By the way, Lambro writes, "Mr. Hoffa never made it to first base with Miss Reno in his crusade to end the government's 13-year oversight of the Teamsters". Is it just me, or is the natural reaction to putting "first base" and "Miss Reno" in the same sentence something along the lines of "ewwww!"?

BLOW-UP is the The Internet Movie Database's film of the day. Here's Andrew Sarris's 1966 review of it and unlike much produced from that period, this film (and Sarris's review, curiously enough) have aged pretty well. (Which is probably why Mike Myers' Austin Powers have repeatedly ripped off their iconic imagery.

Anyone for tennis?

THE JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL/BURGER KING/NYMPHOMANIA CONNECTION: Found by Asparagirl.

GROUND ZERO: The Les Paul Forum, one of whose members died in the 9/11 attack on the WTC, has photos taken this week of Ground Zero.

RUSSELL KIRK AND WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY will be featured on CSpan's American Writers series next Sunday. Follow the link for times to program your VCRs, Replays, TiVos or UltimateTV boxes.

UPDATE: There's a slight possibility the Brothers Judd will be taping this show. (Folllow their link, if you by chance you don't know who Buckley and/or Kirk are.)

TRES PRODUCERS has lots of stuff on Ted "Terrorist" Turner's outburst earlier this week, including this post and a letter to Ted from Ed Koch.

ANOTHER GOVERNMENT CAUSED FOREST FIRE, this time in Alaska.

Found via VodkaPundit, take a look at this Starbucks ad and tell me if you see what I see.

Fortunately, it was quickly yanked, and one possibly ill-conceived ad campaign isn't enough to make me consider drinking coffee made by these guys.

PRIVATIZING AMTRAK: Reuters says that "the Bush administration plans to embrace limited privatization as a long-term option for high-speed rail service now operated solely by Amtrak".

UPDATE: Patrick Ruffini has some thoughts on breaking up Amtrak.

SOCIALIZED BASEBALL? A tongue-in-cheek solution in Tech Central Station.

EBAY: BUY, SELL, AND FIND LAWYERS? You too can sue Borden over String Cheese, if the price is right!

GREAT DRUDGE JUXTAPOSITION:

FBI Warns of Possible Terror Attacks on July 4...
Martha Meets The Press...

WHO SHOULD CONGRESS BLAME FOR 9/11's INTELLIGENCE FAILURES? Themselves, according to this article in Human Events.

THE MIRAGE OF MODERATE ISLAM is an excellent essay (and apparently the first of a series) by Eric Raymond.

Found via Stephen Green's VodkaPundit blog, who also links to this essay by Larry Miller on the marage of a Palestinian homeland.

If you're looking for an good double feature on what makes the Middle East such a powder keg (literally), this is it.

SPEEDY GONZALES IS BACK! In a (very) minor triumph over the dark forces of political correctness, FOXNews.com is reporting that the little fellow is back on Cartoon Network.

Here's our previous Speedy story. And I'll bet Speedy could kick the Pets.com sock puppet spokesthing's polyester butt six ways to Sunday.

A CODEBREAKING SUMMER: This must be the summer of WWII secret code movies. Earlier this month, I posted my review of Enigma. Here's VodkaPundit's take on John Woo's new Windtalkers.

JAMES BOWMAN didn't review Star Wars: Episode II, but one of his readers did--and Bowman evidently liked the review enough to post it on his home page.

LILEKS ON THE PLO:

Just passed the TV downstairs; a PLO rep was talking to Spock Jr. about the latest suicide bomber, and was asked if he condemned them. “Of course we do,” he said, “because they strengthen Sharon who wants to bring more settlers into Palestinian lands.” BUZZZ. Wrong answer, O killer-shiller. Actually, right answer, since it’s accurate, but you’re just amazed to hear a PLO spokesman say something that honest. He is opposed to blowing apart high-school girls because it will increase support for Sharon. Not because it is evil. Not because it tells the world that his cause has descended into utter depravity, and embraced the death of children because his people’s children go to heaven, and the other people’s children go to hell. (They’re just pigs and dogs anyway, right?)

Another typically excellent James Lileks Bleat--including his thoughts on the governor of his home state: Jesse Ventura.

ISRAEL TO SEIZE PALESTINIAN LANDS, according to this AP report. Steve Den Beste thinks that any hope of a Palestinian state is over: old news, bye bye, forgetaboutit, and that the Palestinians have only themselves to blame.

THE BODY BOWS OUT: John Fund says American politics will be duller without Jesse Ventura. That's a given. But Fund also adds:

A genuine American success story, Mr. Ventura was swept into the governor's mansion when, four years ago 37% of state voters decided they'd had enough of blow-dried politicians who produced little beyond platitudes. Voters laughed when Mr. Ventura ran campy ads portraying a Jesse action figure battling "Evil Special Interest Man." They cheered when he proclaimed "I'll fight to get those Democrats and Republicans to return the $4 billion in excess taxes they took from you. That's $1,000 for every person in Minnesota."

At first the bond between Mr. Ventura and Minnesota voters grew stronger when he appointed talented managers and succeeded in pushing through modest tax rebates. But three years later, Mr. Ventura sounded more like a traditional tax-and-spend politician. In January he called for $2 billion in tax increases to close a budget gap. The proposed hikes included increases in gasoline and cigarette taxes along with an extension of the sales tax to more items. The Legislature eventually plugged the budget gap with a combination of spending cuts and accounting gimmicks but, to Mr. Ventura's embarrassment, no tax increases.

For all his anti-big-government rhetoric, Mr. Ventura was never willing to make truly tough budget decisions. The state budget has grown by 33% during his years in office, easily outstripping inflation. The Tax Foundation reports that despite his modest tax cuts, state revenue is still growing faster than personal income in Minnesota. In other words, government is still gaining ground at the expense of taxpayers.

THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID INKBLOT TEST: In between updates on the Colorado forest fire and the Federal employee accused of starting it, Diana Mertz Hsieh has a fascinating link explaining how the Rorschach Test works and what responses psychiatrists look for when giving it.

WHY PHILLY NEEDS A MANHATTAN INSTITUTE: Patrick Ruffini makes a very good case for having a conservative think tank in liberal Philadelphia.

THIS YEAR'S CINDERELLA NFL TEAM? The Cleveland Browns, according to this Sporting News essay.

ONE HAND CLAPPING AT HARRISON FORD: Donald Sensing, the blogger previously known as Gunner20 (I think I first discovered him on the original Sgt. Stryker Web site) recently added me to his list of links, and posted my thoughts on why the trailers for K-19: The Widow Maker, Harrison Ford's upcoming summer potential-blockbuster used recycled music instead of a score from the actual movie.

Nice to know the cup of coffee I had at film school has paid off!

TED, MEET JONAH. HE WORKS FOR YOU. I noticed this paragraph on the Brothers Judd's link to Ted Turner's astonishingly boneheaded rant (even for Turner) about "Israeli terrorism":

"The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers, that's all they have. The Israelis, they've got one of the most powerful military machines in the world. ... So who are the terrorists?" he told the Guardian newspaper.

Here's a flashback to Jonah Goldberg's comments in early May about this kind of thinking (Jonah is a part-time cohost of CNN's Crossfire and frequent panelist on other CNN shows, when he's not editing National Review Online):

The most annoying argument made by apologists for these massacre-bombers is the one which begins with something like, "the Palestinians don't have American-made tanks and helicopters, 'suicide bombers' are the only weapons the Palestinians have...." The reason this argument is so annoying is threefold.

First, the explicit assumption in this formulation is that if indeed the Palestinians had helicopters and tanks, they would in fact use them. In other words, to make this argument is to concede that the Palestinians are at war with Israel which would put all of the peace rhetoric in a very different light.

Which leads to the second issue. Nobody who makes the "the Palestinians don't have tanks" argument will ever concede the logic of their assertion. If you say to them, "So if they had tanks they'd use them? That doesn't really sound like a desire for peace." You get eye-rolls as if you just don't get it.

And, lastly, contrary to what this argument implies and the assertions of countless Arafat apologists, the Israeli military was not designed nor intended to be aimed at the Palestinians. It was designed to fight wars with actual nations which, several times in the past, tried to destroy Israel. To suggest that the Israeli military is a weapon intended for the Palestinians is a form of moral equivalence. It assumes that Israeli weapons were intended for murder just like Palestinian bomber belts. And that's a lie.

UPDATE: Happy Fun Pundit also weighs in on Ted's continued relevancy--or astonishing lack thereof.

JERUSALEM BUS BOMBING KILLS 20. Here's a news article if you're not up to speed with the latest Palestinian-caused horror. Stephen Green links to two excellent essays to put it into perspective.

WHAT ABOUT THE HEISENBERG COMPENSATORS? Group Captain Mandrake take a look at the current state of teleportation.

In a nutshell, don't hold your breath waiting for Star Trek's transporter system.

VIACOM AD REVENUES UP: As someone who's income is very much determined by ad revenues in printed media (more ad space equals more space for print content--i.e.: articles), I'm happy to see this story, about television ad revenues, I suspect they're a pretty good leading economic indicator.

BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID: That obnoxious Pets.com sock puppet has now been reincarnated as a spokes-puppet-thing for 1-800-BAR NONE, an auto loan company, using the slogan "Everybody deserves a second chance". (Fine. But not every corporate spokes-sock.) Read this press release for more information--or don't. I can understand you not want to touch this ridiculous piece of lint with a three-meter cattle prod (as the Ghostbusters might say).

My wife is in danger of losing her Tough Chick status by being waaaaay too happy over this breaking news, which she spotted in this San Jose Mercury article. But her Capitalist Chick street cred is enhanced by noting that not once did he live off of the Federal or state dole during his long period of unemployment.

BOATLOAD OF AL-QAIDA RUMORED TO BE HEADED TOWARDS L.A., or already in L.A., or docked nearby, according to this Washington Times article. Asparagirl has appropriate advice for her Hollywood-based beau.

REALITY CHECK: Found on the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web Today page:

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice gave a commencement address at Stanford University, where, according to the San Jose Mercury News, "protesters held signs with messages such as, 'Security: Too High a Price with Condi Rice,' and 'We Don't Want Your Racist War.' "Blogger Bo Cowgill has photos of the protesters, all of whom appear to be white.

TOUGH CHICKS: This is a couple of months old, but if you haven't read it, it's a classic, by Mike--probably no relation to Jimi--Hendrix.

I just have one point of contention. Mike writes "A Tough Chick would do Angelina Jolie in a hot second, and doesn't care if even her mother knows it". I'd like to think a proper Tough Chick would spot Jolie as a collagen-lipped Hollywood phony who makes really lousy films and move on. But that's a minor quibble about an otherwise very enjoyable essay.

Tough chicks. Bellicose Women. Sensible-shoed libertarians. It's a fun ol' blogosphere!

HOW A NEW JERSEY WEDDING BAND WOUND UP PLAYING AT PAUL McCARTNEY'S NUPTIALS, from the New York Daily News.

CIRCUIT CITY DUMPING VHS FOR DVD. Found via The Digital Bits:

Here's a funny story that defines irony (as our old buddy Andy Patrizio said when he e-mailed me the news this morning): Circuit City is no longer going to be carrying VHS. Yes, the company that tried to shove the DIVX pay-per-view competitor to DVD down your throats now apparently realizes that (gasp!), "Consumers want DVD, and we want to meet that demand." You can't see it, but I've got one helluva grin on my face right now. And it's gonna be a while before it comes off.

STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN wrestled with his wife this weekend, according to this police blotter report from The Smoking Gun.

Gee, and I thought all this "rassling" stuff was just an act. Nice to see these dignified, highly seasoned professional athletes living the life outside the ring as well.

BEIJING CLOSES INTERNET CAFES, after one was destroyed in a fire, which killed 24 people, according to this AP report:

A spokesman for the Beijing city government said Monday that the capital's 2,400 Internet cafes were ordered shut down on safety grounds. Only 200 will be allowed to reopen, said the spokesman, who would give only his surname, Fan.

"This is done purely to save people's lives and property," Fan said.

And Cuba recently officially banned PC sales to anyone lucky enough in Castro's Cuba to even afford one.

Meanwhile, in Oceania, war continues with Eastasia, and the chocolate ration has been increased to 20 grams a week. Doubleplus good!

THE WATERGATE GUN IS STILL SMOKING, causing the CIA's failure to prevent 9/11, according to this article by Mark Riebling in National Review Online.

Meanwhile, The Brothers Judd, as well as John Dean, are each hot on the trail of Deep Throat.

UPDATE: Joshua Marshall seconds Judds' opinion on Deep Throat's identity.

THE MANY LIVES OF LES PAUL: My profile of the father of the electric guitar is now online here. Or, if you stop by today (Monday), you can click in through Catholic Exchange's homepage.

FLASHBACK: Here's my blog entry from the day after I interviewed him. Think I sound excited?

THE GUARDIAN OF STUPIDITY: Excellent essay by Steve Den Beste on the moral equivalency of The Guardian, and an open letter to it written by the usual American suspects, including: Chomsky, Said, Ed Asner (of course!) and unfortunately, Ossie Davis, an actor whose performances I've always enjoyed. (As is Asner himself, who is one of my favorite actors--I loved him in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, and a host of other roles.)

I realize acting and logic are usually mutually unrelated terms, but I really question the ability of all of the folks on that list to reason. As to why, read Den Beste's essay.

(Found via Group Captain Lionel Mandrake<