Pennywit's Place

In an otherwise serious and tragic story, we now know the answer to an age-old question: What happens when you put a hundred lawyers in one room? The answer:

The case — clearly one of the biggest, most convoluted child-custody hearings in U.S. history — presented an extraordinary spectacle: big-city lawyers in suits and mothers in 19th-century, pioneer-style dresses, all packed into a courtroom and a nearby auditorium connected by video.

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I have no words for this correction that appeared in the New York Times.

Scratch that. I have a few words. I remember a time not long ago -- around 15 years ago, in fact -- when the Times was a solid, trustworthy national newspaper. Between this and its other myriad journalistic sins over the past decade -- from Jayson Blair to the recent McCain story -- the Times is irrevocably tarnished its image.

The Washington Post (among others) reports that the Bush administration has released a memo that justified the use of torture ... excuse me ... extreme interrogation techniques against detainees captured in the war on terror.

I've been puzzling over the economy and investment banks for the last couple weeks, trying best to figure out how to phrase what I think is the central problem. The Washington Post's Allan Sloan puts it succinctly:

In an op-ed defending his calling Bill Richardson "Judas" for endorsing Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton, James Carville does hit one worthwhile point:

From the Washington Post's article on Obama fundraising:

This approach -- not directly asking for donations -- has been part of the campaign's strategy of slow-walking its way into supporters' wallets. Newcomers are led to a blog and an online store and are offered a chance to join local Obama groups.

I have no other word for this incident, in which a woman was required to remove her nipple rings (behind a curtain) while listening to male members of the TSA snicker. Incidents like this call into question the training given to TSA officers, those officers' professionalism, and the validity of TSA air-travel regulations.

In a Wednesday column in the Wall Street Journal, Pete Hoekstra derided the Western media for not standing up for freedom of speech in the face of threats from radical Islamists. Among the suppressed media, Hoekstra points to Geert Wilder's "Fitna," which Hoekstra describes thusly:

Reasonable men in free societies regard Geert Wilders's anti-Muslim rhetoric, and films like "Fitna," as disrespectful of the religious sensitivities of members of the Islamic faith.

In the wake of Barack Obama's recent speech on race, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tells the Washington Times that America has a race problem in part because of a "national birth defect." A sample:

"Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding."

This movie's been around for a while, but it's incredibly funny. Enjoy.