Thabeet doesn't go on

SPORTING GOODS

I guess I'm sorry to see this, but

The Memphis Grizzlies are sending No. 2 overall pick Hasheem Thabeet to the D-League, the team announced on Thursday.

Thabeet is the highest draft pick ever sent to the D-League by an NBA team.

I do know the erstwhile UConn dominator was getting virtually no playing time in Memphis, so maybe this will give him an opportunity to get some minutes in.

Nevertheless, he was so good at UConn that it's somewhat surprising to see that he needs more development before he's NBA-worthy.

Sickness is Health

MANIFESTO

After a while, one has to come to the conclusion that either all ingestions are healthful or none are. Today's demonstration:

For years, many middle-aged people have taken the drug in hopes of reducing the chance of a heart attack or stroke. Americans bought more than 44 million packages of low-dose aspirin marketed for heart protection in the year ended September, up about 12% from 2005, according to research firm IMS Health.

Now, medical experts say some people who are taking aspirin on a regular basis should think about stopping. Public-health officials are scaling back official recommendations for the painkiller to target a narrower group of patients who are at risk of a heart attack or stroke. The concern is that aspirin's side effects, which can include bleeding ulcers, might outweigh the potential benefits when taken by many healthy or older people.

As one who's taken an 81mg aspirin tablet every day for the past couple of decades, I suppose it doesn't surprise me that such a warning has now been issued. After all, "experts" still don't seem to know what to recommend concerning ethyl alcohol, caffeine, and any number of other chemicals.

Canadian woman — stay away from me

SPORTING GOODS

This is a riot. Of course, American women would never act this way.

What Steve Benen said

MANIFESTO

Has the health care "summit" finally convinced Democrats that

Republicans aren't willing to negotiate in good faith, and have literally no interest in working towards a compromise on reform[?]

I'm not exactly holding my breath.

NCAA news

MANIFESTO

Needless to say, I can't abide the NCAA, which I don't see as much more than latter-day plantation owners, all the while insisting that its patriotic heart is in the right place (via the surfeit of American flags on college teams' headwear and uniforms).

Be that as it may, the group

removed an ad placed by the evangelical group Focus on the Family from one of its Web sites this week after some members — including faculty and athletic directors — expressed concern that the evangelical group’s stance against gay and lesbian relationships conflicted with the N.C.A.A.’s policy of inclusion regardless of sexual orientation, said Bob Williams, an association spokesman.

This is kind of like the Toyota situation in that the NCAA was glad to take the odious FOF's money as long as it didn't get caught. Once things hit the fan, however, actions were finally taken.

Senator Senility nee Septuagenarian

MANIFESTO

Demonstration of dementia number 483.

Quote of the day

MANIFESTO

As democratic institutions and social safety nets are increasingly considered dispensable luxuries, the task of governance will be to lower the political and economic expectations of the masses without inciting full-fledged revolt.

— Ando Arike writing about governments' new methods of crowd control in the latest Harpers

This is what it's come to as the notion of government of the people, by the people, and for the people twists slowly in the wind.

Déjà vu all over again

MANIFESTO

Needless to say, if one lives long enough, he'll see the same fashions over and over again.

Oh, that that weren't the case with carmakers' cavalier attitudes toward automobile safety.

Fifty years ago, Ralph Nader first made a name for himself by investigating the horrid drivability of Chevrolet's Corvair. And, these days, we find that

US lawmakers will examine whether [Toyota] put financial considerations ahead of driver safety at two Congressional hearings this week, including one tomorrow at which Toyota's president, Akio Toyoda, is scheduled to testify.

So it goes.

Query

MANIFESTO

Is there any earthly reason—other than the obvious attempt to assuage his ego—why the nearly 74-year-old John McCain is running for re-election to the Senate this year?

His desire for yet another six year term shows all that is wrong with the country's idea of democracy.

He's still an idiot

MANIFESTO

... but at least he seems to have gotten one thing right.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) gave a major boost to scrapping the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy Sunday by backing a bill to let gays serve openly.

"I've been asked by both the White House and the advocacy groups within the gay-rights community to be the lead sponsor, and I'm glad to do it," Lieberman told New York Daily News columnist James Kirchick.

Needless to say, Holy Joe has retreated from so many positions that once seemed unalterable that I'm a little dubious about his sincerity here, especially since

Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whom Lieberman supported for President, oppose ending the ban on openly gay service members.

Time will tell just how steadfast Senator Sanctimony remains regarding this position.

BTW—I returned yesterday from a week-long Caribbean cruise wherein I could've counted the number of hours of unfiltered sunlight I saw on my two hands.

Ta ta

TRAVEL

I'm off to warmer climes for the next week. Blogging will be sporadic at best.

In the meantime, here's a horrid little development I'm leaving.

Another octogenarian who needs to retire

MANIFESTO

David Broder.

Give me strength.

Boom!

CENTER

Needless to say, the big news in the Constitution State in the last eighteen hours has been the explosion at a power plant under construction in Middletown. The Courant isn't kidding when it reports that the blast was heard miles and miles away. Mrs. Monocle and I were in church in North Madison when it occurred, and the entire congregation thought someone had fainted in the balcony and hit the floor hard.

This is a story that'll last for years.

This is what I get for not following WWE

MANIFESTO

Once upon a time, there was a WWE performer named Eugene. Somehow, he's become an issue in the twilight zone that is Connecticut GOP politics.

Not that it makes any difference, since it seems pretty clear that Blumenthal will "savagely stomp and beat" any one of the lightweights to come out of the Republican senatorial primaries.

Keeping my fingers crossed

MANIFESTO

Item:

The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.

Educators who have been briefed by administration officials said the proposals for changes in the main law governing the federal role in public schools would eliminate or rework many of the provisions that teachers’ unions, associations of principals, school boards and other groups have found most objectionable.

Obviously, this story has a long way to go, but the mere fact that people are talking about the foolishness of creating a Lake Wobegon society (where every child is above average) is encouraging.

Say it ain't so, Joe

SPORTING GOODS

Just kill me.

"Poor judgement," my ankle

MANIFESTO

Item:

An upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.

While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, Newsweek has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources.

So it goes, and the DOJ continues to show its lack of professional responsibilty and ethics just as it did when the abysmal Bushies were around.

Another Boomer who longs for the good old days

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I give you Colin McEnroe.