Belgians? Really?

• Dear Howard Dean: stop losing elections.
• Dear Larry Craig: give it up, man. You willingly pleaded guilty, and now you're trying to go back on that. Then your entire political support turned on you and went for your throat, and you willingly resigned. Now you're trying to go back on that. Just let it go.
• The idea of a strong central in Iraq is fading, with the new model emphasizing local governments, essentially setting up something similar to the United Arab Emirates. The idea is to empower the local authorities among both Sunni and Shiite populations so that everyone is relatively autonomous and every can get along. Which of course is a great idea until the "United" falls away and Iraq breaks into feudalism.
• I'll link to this story, but you may not want to read it. It's about an Afghanistan vet who was killed by the police because he couldn't cope with the fact that they were going to send him to Iraq. Why? Because the Army doesn't talk to the VA, so they didn't bother to find out that he was suffering from massive PTSD.
  
• Criminal or not, investigating Deborah Jeanne Palfrey was a bad idea. She's got most of Washington by the balls, in a fairly literal way. She's got too much on them, and I doubt she'll really get taken down by this. Her business may not by what it was, but I don't think the prosecution will really win much from this case.
• If Bill Richardson can fix the CTA, I'll follow him through anywhere.
• The Supreme Court could be taking a case which will have massive, massive repercussions as far as the gun control debate.
• Bill Clinton's presidency hinged on the definition of "is." George W. Bush's hinges on the definition of "ass."
  
• Academia vindicates Bill Hicks.
• The results of this poll are disgusting on at least two levels. 1) Giuliani won. 2) He won with a 5.5.
• I really want to see how China tries to enforce its new regulations on reincarnation.
• Belgians are smart.
• The people handling our nuclear weapons are not.
  

Today would have been Freddie Mercury's 61st birthday, if he had survived to see it. In my personal opinion, Freddie Mercury was the greatest singer rock music ever saw, with all of the style and bombast of your Mick Jagger types, but with a voice that was unmatched. Go listen to some Queen tonight and celebrate his life for him, since he's not around to.