"These people are insane."

Said Jordan's King Abdullah.

"What is happening today in the suburbs is true anger."

More violence in France.

"How fondly we will remember and miss this tender and heart-warming 'Never mind' in the days to come."

A princess leaves the royal family.

A roar.

Sitting here, sealed up in my University Heights house, I hear a crowd noise, a roar. There is a football game out there, a few blocks away. I'll have to assume there was a touchdown.

For my readers who can't get enough of my conflicts with my ex-husband.

You want to go here. (You have to read the comments!)

ADDED: If you've arrived at this post looking for information about why I am marrying the commenter Meade (with whom I squabble in these comments), you'll find more information here.

AND: Here's the text of the email I sent to Andrew Sullivan (who wrote this):

Andrew, I don't think you've understood the time line here. And why link to the nasty Pandagon on this one? Your post is really disrespectful to me. If you'd watched the Bloggingheads you linked to, you'd know that my fiancé is someone who has interacted with me in writing on my blog for more than 4 years. We decided to meet in person after an exchange of email in December. We met in January and then, after a some additional email, decided to meet again in mid-February, and then we fell in love. We decided to get married after 2 more weekends and a 10-day spring break.

Why is this something that you choose to mock? Is there something ridiculous about a blogger coming to love someone who she first knew through writing in the comments and developed an affection for over a period of years? Or is it just that we decided to marry within 2 months of meeting each other in person? My parents met in the Army and got married 2 weeks later and loved each other until they died many decades later. I'd really like to know what part of my experience deserves "OMFG."

Where did Jesus get his Y chromosome?

Think about it. Knowing what we know now about genetics but assuming a virgin birth, shouldn't Jesus have been a woman?

"I've learned to have some sympathy for those who are staring down the barrel of the Internet."

So writes Joseph Nocera from behind the wall of TimesSelect (subscriber's link). He used to think that those who "can't adapt to disruptive technologies ... probably deserve their fate," but now, seeing what's happening at the NYT, he's not so sure. He recounts the naysaying about TimeSelect and then comes out with this:

SO it was a bit of a surprise, after all the sturm und drang, to see the early results of The Times's online subscription experiment. They're not half bad. In a news release issued Wednesday morning, the company reported that since it began in mid-September, TimesSelect has generated 270,000 subscribers, half of whom already subscribed to the newspaper (and hence get the new service free) and half of whom were plunking down cold, hard cash.

To be sure, that is a far cry from the million-plus people who spend as much as $600 a year to buy the dead-tree version of The Times, and it's not even remotely close to the 20 million-plus "unique visitors" who come to the Times Web site each month. But it's something. Martin Nisenholtz, who is in charge of digital operations for The New York Times Company, told me that the numbers were "at the high end" of expectations.

We're supposed to believe that? Why would they wall off their columnists for so little money? And what's with saying "TimesSelect has generated 270,000 subscribers"? Generated? Half of those people (including me) got it free as subscribers to the paper version.

It is far too early, of course, to predict whether TimesSelect will ultimately succeed. The roughly 135,000 online-only subscribers could represent a new willingness on the part of consumers to pay for newspaper content online - or not. But what I've wound up wondering is whether, even if it is a roaring success, TimesSelect - and other online subscription models that are bound to follow - will be enough to stop the erosion of the economics that underlie newspaper journalism. I'm not terribly sanguine.

Is it really too early? It looks like a dreadful failure to me. In any case, the real problem, Nocero writes, is that, with or without TimesSelect, on line news reading will erode the journalism business. He quotes one analyst: "For every dollar coming out of the dead-tree pocket, only 33 cents is going back into the online pocket."

By the way, the TimesSelect columnists are recording little podcasts, about 3 or 4 minutes per column. I listened to Nocero's. (Boy, did it take a long time to download! I can download one of my own 1-hour podcasts in about the time it took to get those 3+ minutes.) It's not Nocero just reading his column -- in the style of a Slate podcast. It's more like my idea for podcasting, which is to talk spontaneously about what you've been writing. Nocero confides that he's being rather audacious writing about the NYT, and perhaps they will fire him.

I tested the Maureen Dowd podcast though, just now, and it is not Mo musing about the column, it's a broadcasty voice reading Mo's most recent column. David Brooks? Same thing! Tierney? Same! Friedman? What do you think?

Only Nocero gets podcasty -- as I define podcastiness.

"A betrayal of the law school's liberal values."

Adam Liptak writes about the way Yale lawprofs treat their own -- graduates Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and colleague Robert Bork. But why should your opinion of a nominee be any different because he has a tie to your institution? Isn't that cronyism?

Speaking of whoring.

You could vote for me over here. (In the sidebar at the link.)

"Prostitution isolates you, with all its little ways that people not in it don't understand, much in the way some religions do, or drug addictions."

So writes Lisa Carver in an essay called "I Was a Teenaged Prostitute and It Was Kind of Great." Carver, who was nineteen when she took up prostitution, writes:

It's hard to explain certain things, and after a while it's easier to not talk to anyone outside much at all. I thought that as a prostitute, I would no longer be inside a dream; I'd be flung, newly sharp and capable, into life. Actually, I discover, the opposite is true. Prostitution is a complex, shared dream where everyone agrees to not wake up, for just a little longer....

I buy a ticket for France. I have to quit my job because I like it too much.

No one still "in life" will talk about it, and it seems like those who left will only talk about the bad side. But as I walk away from prostitution and drug addicts and gain back my own life and body, I know I'm losing something too. I lose nothingness.

Abandonment has always led to advanced creativity.

Via Hit and Run, which has a lot of comments, but I anticipate better comments here.

"It doesn't change the reality that he was wrongly convicted and the system has to get it right."

So said Keith Findley, co-director of the Innocence Project, here at the University of Wisconsin Law School, speaking about Steven Avery. The Innocence Project did the legal work that freed Avery, who had already served 18 years for a rape that, evidence showed, he did not commit.

Now, Avery is accused of committing a murder:

Steven Avery, the Mishicot man who served 18 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, will be charged with the murder of a 25-year-old woman who disappeared on Halloween, Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz said Friday.

Avery, 43, was the last known person to see Teresa Halbach alive, and his blood was found along with hers in her sport utility vehicle, said Kratz, who expects to file charges early next week.

The police worry that they will be accused of framing Avery:

Kratz and police officials sought to swiftly dispel any notions that Avery is being wrongly accused of a heinous crime for a second time or that Manitowoc County law enforcement officials are trying to frame him. Avery has a pending $36 million lawsuit against the county for wrongful imprisonment.

Kratz said that after Halbach's SUV was found Saturday on the Avery property by a volunteer searcher, it was immediately sealed in a container and wasn't searched until it arrived at the state Crime Laboratory in Madison. No local police had access to it, he said.

And Kratz called it "absurd" that anyone would think that someone trying to frame Avery would not only be able to plant a key in Avery's bedroom but also would be carrying around a vial of his perspiration or some other item with his DNA.

Should Innocence Project be called into question because one freed man goes on to commit another crime? That hardly makes sense, but the passionate feeling for the victim, Teresa Halbach, is very strong -- quite understandably. I'm sure people who work on the Innocence Project are feeling a lot of pressure. I'm getting phone calls and email about it, even though I do not work on the project.

"And yes, he should question their patriotism. Because they're acting unpatriotically."

Glenn Reynolds has that to say about Bush's Iraq speech. That provokes quite an outcry, as I'm sure he expected. He reports "hatemail" and responds:

[T]he Democratic politicans who are pushing the "Bush Lied" meme are, I think, playing politics with the war in a way that is, in fact, unpatriotic. Having voted for the war, they now want to cozy up to the increasingly powerful MoveOn crowd, which is immensely antiwar. The "Bush Lied" meme is their way of getting cover. This move also suggests that their earlier support for the war may itself have been more opportunistic than sincere, which I suppose is another variety of unpatriotism....

[I]t's not "dissent" that's unpatriotic... It's putting one's own political positions first, even if doing so encourages our enemies, as this sort of talk is sure to do.

"Unpatriotic" is a very hot word. If you use it, you've got to know you're going to make the other side steaming mad. They get mad, in part, because it works as such a powerful criticism and hurts their cause.

Creating a fuss over the use of the word "unpatriotic" might be a good strategy for Bush opponents though. Speaking in generalities about the grand tradition of dissent might be a somewhat effective way to detract attention from the specific problems about the current dissent that President Bush raised in his great speech. And in fact, Bush treated his opponents fairly and respectfully in his speech:

Some observers look at the job ahead and adopt a self-defeating pessimism. It is not justified....

And our debate at home must also be fair-minded. One of the hallmarks of a free society and what makes our country strong is that our political leaders can discuss their differences openly, even in times of war. When I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support. I also recognize that some of our fellow citizens and elected officials didn't support the liberation of Iraq. And that is their right, and I respect it. As President and Commander-in-Chief, I accept the responsibilities, and the criticisms, and the consequences that come with such a solemn decision.

While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began....

The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges. (Applause.) These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. (Applause.) Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. (Applause.) And our troops deserve to know that whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united, and we will settle for nothing less than victory. (Applause.).

UPDATE: You know, back in the days of the Vietnam War, protesters and other anti-war folk didn't give a damn if you called them unpatriotic! In fact, "patriotic" was used as a slur. They called themselves unpatriotic. That's how I remember it -- from where I was at the time (the University of Michigan, 1969-1973).

"A panda, a carp, a Tibetan antelope, a swallow and the Olympic flame."

See, you would have thought they'd just have one mascot for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and it would be -- obvious! -- the panda. But China's having five mascots, including a carp! But it's not so bad. All but the panda seem to look like cute kids:



And remember the kooky Athens Olympics mascots?



What were they thinking?

Anyway, here's what the Chinese were thinking:

The mascots were presented as Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying and Ni Ni - which, put together reads in Chinese "Beijing welcomes you!"

"They reflect the cultural diversity of China as a multiethnic country," said Liu Qi, President of Beijing Organising Committee.

"They represent the enthusiasm and aspirations of our people, Liu Qi added.

Coloured in the five hues of the Olympic rings, the mascots also represent the sea, forests, fire, earth and air.

See, it makes plenty of sense.

IN THE COMMENTS: Starless:

"A panda, a carp, a Tibetan antelope, a swallow and the Olympic flame...What are the contents of Ed's freezer?"

"Hi-Oh!"

"Tracy should never have had children. Tracy didn't like children. She didn't like no one. Tracy wasn't affectionate with nobody."

The words of a member of Tracina Vaughn's family.

[P]rosecutors say... that Ms. Vaughn put her two boys in the bath on Sunday night and wandered off to another room to play CD's. Her current companion, Gary Young, poked his head in after 15 or 20 minutes and, though he did not see Dahquay, assumed the boy had tucked himself behind the shower curtain and then went out for diapers and some beer.

Twenty minutes later, give or take a few, Ms. Vaughn checked on the boys herself.

The boys were 3 years old and 16 months old. The younger child, Dahquay, drowned.

I SHOULD ADD: The linked article, which is quite long, is an effort to portray the mother in a sympathetic light.

"These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will."

I'm glad to see Bush is forcefully defending the Iraq war. He needs to do that more.

Frontrunners.

WaPo's Chris Cillizza picks the likely frontrunners for the 2008 presidential race. My reaction to lists like this is what it has always been: these are all we've got? I never like any of them. These folks are out in front? Why is there no one better in front of them? At some point, we'll have to get serious and find someone we'll be able to tolerate. But ... oh, how I dislike every single one of these people! I mean I like Russ Feingold, but I can't see him as President. I can never see anyone as President.