Althouse

Bookstores that won't sell "Going Rogue"? "Our customers are thinking people. They're not into reading drivel."

2009-11-20T17:58:00.000-06:00

That's Nathan Embretson, a bookseller at Pendragon Books in Oakland.

There's not a single copy on the shelf. Embretson said no one has asked for it except for one guy, who was kidding.

"He said he wanted to look at it but he also said he didn't really want to read it," Embretson said. "Anyway, he certainly didn't want to buy it. I think he regarded looking at it as a kind of punishment."

"Anything like that we wouldn't carry," said clerk Emily Stackhouse. "We're a small store and it would probably gross us all out. Some things you carry because of freedom of speech, but a book like that is just gross."

One customer did put in a special request for the book one evening but, perhaps thinking better in the light of day, failed to show up and actually pay money for it, Stackhouse said.

Killing people for their fat.

2009-11-20T14:30:00.000-06:00

Is there really an international market in human fat? Three men who have confessed to the crime say the going price is $60,000 a gallon. (They say it is used as an ingredient in cosmetics.)

"It's not like you're going to be walking down State Street in Madison or walking in downtown Milwaukee and there's going to be compassion centers or dispensaries every other door."

2009-11-20T14:09:00.001-06:00

"I just don't think that's going to happen."

The medical marijuana bill's sponsor just doesn't think that's going to happen. All right then.

Medical marijuana is sold under catchy names like Space Queen, Blue Dream, Purple Urkel and Train Wreck, and health-conscious users are gravitating toward vaporizers rather than smoking.

Great! Health-conscious folk with doctors notes are using Space Queen, Blue Dream, Purple Urkel and Train Wreck. Focus on health! Thank God they're not smoking!

Obama drops to 49%.

2009-11-20T13:06:00.000-06:00

"Of the post-World War II presidents, Obama now is the fourth fastest to drop below the majority approval level, doing so in his 10th month on the job. Gerald Ford dropped below 50% approval during his third month in office, and Bill Clinton did so in his fourth month. Ronald Reagan, like Obama, also dropped below 50% in his 10th month in office, though Reagan's drop occurred a few days sooner in that month (Nov. 13-16, 1981) than did Obama's (Nov. 17-19, 2009)."

Climategate.

2009-11-20T13:03:00.002-06:00

A storm is brewing.

Did you know it's a good idea to plant trees in the late fall?

2009-11-20T12:47:00.000-06:00

A nursery delivery this morning at Meadhouse:

Nice work by Steve and Claudio of Johnson's Nursery.

First, big, lovely elm. It's a New Horizon elm, a disease-resistant cultivar developed here at the University of Wisconsin:

And over on the other side of that place Wisconsinites call the "terrace," a serviceberry:

The trees will settle in over the winter. We'll watch them through the windows. (Meade placed them to make the best views from particular windows where we sit inside. That's the right way to do it, you know.) We'll watch the snows come and go and look forward to the beauty of spring. But today, at Meadhouse, it already looks like spring.

Forget the medical treatments. Forget even the pain pills.

2009-11-20T10:05:00.000-06:00

We'll save even more money if we just get these women who are bitching about pain to hold their boyfriend's hand or look at a picture of their kid.

The ideas for savings to the health care system are endless! We know already, of course, about the great new idea of not looking so closely at those breasts. What we don't know won't cause us anxiety, and if cancer should come, the later we discover it the better, because there is nothing like death to stop us from running to the doctor for every little thing.

And those silly Pap tests that had us thinking we needed a pelvic exam every year?The official word has come that you don't need that testing so early or so often:

Young women are especially prone to develop abnormalities in the cervix that appear to be precancerous, but that will go away if left alone. But when Pap tests find the growths, doctors often remove them, with procedures that can injure the cervix and lead to problems later when a woman becomes pregnant, including premature birth and an increased risk of needing a Caesarean.

And talk about expensive! Premature births and Caesarean sections? Wouldn't it be so much nicer for everyone if women would man up and give the old vagina a go? And if the baby dies? Think of how many trips to the pediatrician will be avoided. Why spend so much on preemies anyway? Surely, the new guidelines on extra-tiny humans will yield nice savings.

There are 11,270 new cases of cervical cancer and 4,070 deaths per year in the United States. One to 2 cases occur per 1,000,000 girls ages 15 to 19 — a low incidence that convinces many doctors that it is safe to wait until 21 to screen.

Oh, now, don't go all squishy on that one-in-a-million 15 year old girl. We've got to get costs under control. And if, by some quirk of fate, she happens to be your little girl, the experts are here to tell you that you will feel quite a bit better — surprisingly so — when you look at an old photograph of your lost child.

Come on, be honest. Don't you want the federal government to have a complete overview of health care? The potential rationality is stunning. And one thing in this emerging rationality is clear: Although women tend to love the notion of government control more than men do, it is women who will be told they'll have to cut back. On treatments. And years. You know we've been taking more than our share.

"We sort of have well-placed objects in front of the frontal...There's like hockey sticks, shirts..."

2009-11-20T08:34:00.000-06:00

No, those are badly placed objects, Levi. People wanted to see what that thing you call your "frontal" looks like.

"Why would anybody stay in Chicago? It's freezing here, and I have a mansion in Montecito..."

2009-11-20T08:31:00.000-06:00

Wow. Hasn't Chicago been kicked around enough? First, the Olympics snub, and now Oprah. There's one more obvious O that could kick Chicago, and that's Obama. At least it will be a few years before we see that he's not going back to Chicago when the presidential gig ends.

***

The linked article says: "Oprah and her people have long limited the time she spends in Montecito so she doesn't exceed the number of days mandating her to pay exorbitant taxes as a California resident." Ha, I say. Liberals! They are all for rich folk paying high taxes, but what do they do when they are rich? How rich is Oprah? Really, really rich. So rich she can't have enough ideas of what to spend it all on. So why withhold it from the dear sweet state of California that you love so much and that needs money so terribly, terribly badly?

"The Heidi Klum of foot models" marries the footman, I mean, doorman...

2009-11-20T08:05:00.000-06:00

... and all hell breaks loose. I mean, the other service workers in the building stop getting her packages and hailing taxis for her.

"I fell in love with Angel because he is a sweet, caring man - how dare they look down on us!"

And the the super's wife supposedly punched Angel in the balls.

It's a new lawsuit. Christina Ambers wants $10 million.

The windowbox in November.

2009-11-19T22:46:00.001-06:00

Finally! The Bloggingheads with me and Michelle Goldberg, talking about Sarah Palin's book...

2009-11-19T20:06:00.001-06:00

... and assorted other things....

IN THE COMMENTS: d said:

I love how Ann doesn't get exercised over politics, but does over literature!

Thanks for getting me.

Memo to CBS and Katie Couric: Release the unedited Palin video.

2009-11-19T17:06:00.000-06:00

In "Going Rogue," Sarah Palin criticizes CBS for editing long interviews into the most damaging soundbites and making her look stupid and irritable. There's an easy solution: Release the unedited video. There is a lot of material in the book making assertions about all sorts of trenchant comments Palin supposedly made. Palin says she was asked the same questions over and over in an effort to elicit a bad answer. She says that some of her answers were clipped after some simple beginning and before she delved into details that would have made her look smart and knowledgeable. It would be very easy to check if we had all the video. Put it up on line.

"Thanks for not hanging up on me."

2009-11-19T15:24:00.000-06:00

Here's how this ended:

What is John McCain's favorite form of exercise?

2009-11-19T12:27:00.001-06:00

Wading!

(Page 286 of "Going Rogue," by Sarah Palin.)

Diavlogging about Sarah Palin.

2009-11-19T11:46:00.002-06:00

I'm recording a Bloggingheads episode in an hour and a half. In the past, I've always kept these things secret and then sprung them on you when the finished diavlog was up over on the Bloggingheads site. But I'm going to take the liberty to do it differently this time.

They want an episode on Palin's book, and they've paired me — despite my "Sarah Palin is dumb" post — with someone who completely hates Sarah Palin, Michelle Goldberg.

Here I am talking with her last July, in a segment titled "Analyzing why Michelle HATES Palin":

Clearly, the anti-Palin side will be strongly represented in this diavlog. Shouldn't more of a pro-Palinist be found? I'm told that I am the closest they can come to a diavlogger on the Palin side. Fearing that this is not going to be an even match, I'm deviating from the norm and ripping the cloak of secrecy off Bloggingheads so I can invite you to supply me with questions, topics, and ideas. Help me out.

UPDATE: Here.

Hoosiers line up early in the morning for a chance to see Sarah Palin at a Borders in the small city of Noblesville.

2009-11-19T10:18:00.000-06:00

Here are the first 2 of the 1000 who got wristbands to allow them in this evening:

The line started last night at 9 PM.

More pictures like that, by Sam Riche, at the link.

Meanwhile, Fox News screws up by showing video from last year to illustrate a story about the crowds at her current book tour.

"The Faculty has serious concerns about CPT Hasan's professionalism and work ethic. ... He demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism."

2009-11-19T08:59:00.002-06:00

A 2007 memo:

Two years ago, a top psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was so concerned about what he saw as Nidal Hasan's incompetence and reckless behavior that he put those concerns in writing....

Officials at Walter Reed sent that memo to Fort Hood this year when Hasan was transferred there.

Nevertheless, commanders still assigned Hasan — accused of killing 13 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood on Nov. 5 — to work with some of the Army's most troubled and vulnerable soldiers.

Shocking, willful blindness. Even if the murders had never occurred, it was wrong to allow Hasan to serve as a psychiatrist.

The memo ticks off numerous problems over the course of Hasan's training, including proselytizing to his patients. It says he mistreated a homicidal patient and allowed her to escape from the emergency room, and that he blew off an important exam.

According to the memo, Hasan hardly did any work: He saw only 30 patients in 38 weeks. Sources at Walter Reed say most psychiatrists see at least 10 times that many patients. When Hasan was supposed to be on call for emergencies, he didn't even answer the phone.

IN THE COMMENTS: Pogo — who is a doctor — wites:

The memo was from during his psychiatry residency (PGY = post-graduate year).

MadisonMan is quite right. [MM said: "I think this shows how hard it is to get rid of someone in a bureaucracy. Much easier to move them somewhere else so they are someone else's problem.] Bureaucracy alone would have kept him in gummint employ; no need to invoke PC issues.

Just imagine rolling out this sort of bureaucracy on a national scale.

We could call it the National Health Service.

"Barack Obama... so many tasks that he underinvested in the most critical ones."

2009-11-19T08:46:00.000-06:00

Writes Mitt Romney:

The restructuring of the entire health care system and his cap-and-trade proposal eclipsed the economy and the war. Investor Warren Buffett, the “sage of Omaha,” counseled him against such a foolhardy agenda, but Buffett’s wisdom was no match for the heady prospect of all-encompassing change...

A full year after being elected, Obama still does not have a strategy for Afghanistan.... What has he been doing for the past 12 months that took precedence over his responsibility for our soldiers?

The answer is that he made 30 or more campaign trips for the Democratic Party and its candidates, including five events for defeated New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine alone. He repeatedly traveled around the country to keynote campaign-style town hall meetings that were carefully choreographed by his communications advisers. He appears to want to do what he knows best: campaign, rather than engage in what he was elected to do — lead and govern.

We elected a candidate.

"I hope to be up half the night trying to write a post on the great mystery of the stories about Trig, stories that have bedeviled the blogosphere and many others for months."

2009-11-19T08:39:00.000-06:00

The main person these "stories" have "bedeviled" is Andrew Sullivan.

There is no proof here of anything, but there is a much more nuanced and detailed narrative of the events (especially now we have Palin's first considered version of the events since the campaign) that when taken together has definitely helped illuminate what was once obscure and, well, bizarre. Believe it or not, it makes a little more sense now.

Andrew, read what you've written. Step back and read it with the eyes of someone who has never heard of you. You sound like a raving conspiracy theorist. Like this guy (from the movie "Slacker"):

In the comments on my post yesterday about Sullivan's decision to go silent to "grapple with this new data" that's "so complicated" he "simply [couldn't] focus, here's chuck b.:

He says the same thing about her all the time. Unhinged grip on reality, deeply disturbed, fantastic story about her fifth pregnancy... yes, yes. Will there be anything new?

I continue to visit his blog (judge me as you will), and it's becoming sad, but I notice a few things...

For example, reality is a particularly big concept for him. Objective reality, reality checks, version of reality, actual reality, current reality. You can find all reality cliches all over the place. I just checked, the word appears 10 times on just the first page of his blog.

Come back, Andrew. Back to the reality that calls you.

Lindsey Graham devastates Eric Holder.

2009-11-18T19:47:00.001-06:00

Crushing:

Holder imagines that he can hide inside that "thoughtful" routine that Obama so often relies on, but it is utterly pathetic here. Either he knows damned well what he's doing and he's lying or he's outrageously unqualified for his job. His evasive style is so similar to Obama's that he makes Obama look worse.

The Sexiest Man Alive.

2009-11-18T16:20:00.000-06:00

According to People Magazine. I agree about the top choice — even though he'd be even better if he shaved.

Also, Adam Lambert gets an honorable mention, which is pretty ridiculous.

The Democratic National Committee's email to reporters located in places on the Sarah Palin book tour.

2009-11-18T15:50:00.001-06:00

"This book tour has only reinforced the tabloid aspects of her profile, wasted a platform to add substance, driven deeper the schisms in the Republican party and sucked the oxygen out of the room for anyone else to emerge. So, God bless."

They're entitled to their spin. The question is whether it makes them look worse and whether local reporters lap up what they've been spoonfed.

At the link is a list of 22 Sarah Palin "lies," such as "Palin Implies She Is The Only One To Get Questions On Her Appearance: '“Edwards, Obama, Clinton, and Biden were subjected to frequent scrutiny 'about their hair, makeup, or clothes.'" You know, if you have to use the word "implies," you ought to back away from the word "lies." Otherwise, you sound like a lunatic.

ADDED: Didn't Palin also "suck the oxygen out of the room" for Obama's Far East tour? Or did that do him a favor?

Sebelius is rebellious...

2009-11-18T15:34:00.000-06:00

... against the death panel.

Holder holds forth.

2009-11-18T14:15:00.000-06:00

On the KSM trial.