(no subject)

Minneapolis mayor R. T. Rybak, RNC cohost, on Unconventionally Yours:

When the Republicans awarded this, they did give me a call and say, "Gee, we wanna make sure you work as hard for the Republican convention as you're gonna work for the Democratic convention," and I said, "Well, to be honest, I'll probably work a little harder for the Republican convention," and they said, "Well, why?" and I said, "Well, to make sure the protest areas are comfortable for my wife and kids."

(Quote around 10:30, but first scroll down and stop the video somebody else posted in the comments.)

political science

No one likes us; I don't know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens

I first encountered Randy Newman's satirical song "Political Science" in 2003, through a great blog called Body and Soul. Jeanne quoted an LA Times article:

The years passed, foreign policy ebbed and flowed, spats with allies came and went, but the wonderful thing about "Political Science," Newman realized, was that no matter how absurd America's behavior toward the rest of the world seemed to people like him, it could never approximate his song's hyperbolic jingoism. "Nobody talked like that, not even [ultra-hawkish Vietnam-era general] Curtis LeMay."

But in 2003, after September 11, Freedom Fries, and the invasion of Iraq, well, suddenly the satire didn't seem so broad.

I thought about all that when I found this video, whose creator seems to have taken Newman's narrator at face value.

best/worst blog: War? Or Car?

Working from Bilmes and Stiglitz's estimate of the Iraq war's total cost to the U.S., Neil Sinhababu is figuring out what else we could have done with three trillion dollars. Some ideas are frivolous (Lift all humans, pigs, and sheep into the air with helium), others tragic (Desalinize enough seawater so all Africans could drink safely until 10,000 AD). All are backed up with facts and figures. War? Or Car?