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Showing posts from December 11, 2005
Why on Earth would a nationally syndicated columnist give a rat's, you know, about the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Island? Because he was getting some serious green to write about it. Longtime Copley News columnist and (until Thursday) Cato Institute fellow Doug Bandow admits that he took as much as $2,000 a pop to write columns that shed a favorable light on the clients of D.C. influence peddler Jack Abramoff. (Hat tip: The Corner .) Bandow conceded the obligatory "error in judgment," Cato immediately cut ties with him, and Copley started purging those columns from its archives. Reactions from syndicated columnists Cal Thomas and Connie Schultz are here . Meantime, another libertarian thinktanker, Peter Ferrara of the heretofore obscure Institute for Policy Innovation, copped to the same charge ... but he won't apologize; indeed, his employer tells Business Week Online that punditry for hire is common, and there's no reason to be ashamed about it. Wonderfu
Dear Santa If Dave Barry can dust off the cobwebs long enough to compile a 2005 Holiday Gift Guide , could you please ask him to put together a year in review, too? And if not, could you get someone else funny and insightful, like, say, James Lileks , to pinch hit? Thanks, Santa. (Hat tip: Instapundit .) P.S. I'm still hoping that Dave comes through. UPDATE: He did . Joe Biden may never recover; the Republic is safe.
Schwarzenegger's statement ... denying clemency to Williams is here . (Hat tip: The Corner .)
Room to breathe TechCentralStation has changed to TCSDaily: Technology, Commerce, Society , with a spiffy new home page and the formal acknowledgment that the site has expanded far beyond talks of telecom. TCS has been on my blogroll since the founding of the online Deregulator, and it's great to see the site grow and evolve. Congrats. In one of the newest entries, lawprof and wine geek Stephen Bainbridge gives a thumbs-up to wineries that are capping their premium vintages with screwtops. Something I learned: California wineries that won't take the twist to screwcaps are replacing natural corks with synthetic ones. Even so, fake corks don't preserve wine well. If you plan to cellar a pricey bottle that's sealed with a bogus cork, beware: your wine could spoil within a couple of years. We belong to the wine club at Bonny Doon Vineyard , home to some of the more unusual wines to emerge from Central California. (When you're looking for Bonny Doon on the shelves, jus
Ban Bonds I'm stunned that Bud Selig said he would review the allegations in Game of Shadows , the forthcoming expose of Barry Bonds' allegedly voracious appetite for performance-enhancing chemicals. Look, MLB had planned to cash in big time on Bonds' pursuit of Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron. If Selig is not just blowing smoke, The Round Mound of Dinger Renown might be in trouble. Wow. As several sportswriters have noted, the book is so meticulously detailed that Bonds cannot credibly stonewall. Doing so would be a tacit admission of guilt. His only options are admitting it's true or suing the authors to the hilt. I'm guessing Selig hopes this matter is moot before April. Either a) the feds indict Bonds for lying to a grand jury or tax evasion -- then Bud could suspend him until the legal battles are over -- or b) Bonds' body has been so devastated by his rapacious substance abuse that he can I just feel bad. I don't want to throw things in his face when he is