"In the cockpit! If we don't, we die!"

The Moussaoui jury hears the Flight 93 recording.

"Naturally when you're applying to college you're looking at how your genetic status might help you."

A DNA test can help.

"Mr. Kennedy's drive to strike a deal with Republicans is making some in his party nervous."

Is Ted Kennedy making other Democrats nervous by behaving as though he's more concerned with solving the immigration problem than with partisan interests?

Beloved idiots.

I'm pulling a topic out of a comment thread. What do you think of the sort of TV comic character that's based nearly entirely on playing dumb? Some folks find it intolerable, but others think it's quite charming and a brilliant source of comedy. The currently controversial dummy character is Kellie Pickler on "American Idol." She's not (supposed to be) a fictional character, so her case is complicated by the suspicion that she's a fraud. I mean, how can you play dumb well if you're actually dumb? You wouldn't have the judgment to choose to blurt out the charmingly dumb remarks. Can she just be lucky?

I'm thinking that dumbness works especially well on TV. I don't have a theory why that's the case. But a couple great examples spring to mind: Goldie Hawn, Gracie Allen. Yes, I know my examples are ancient, but I haven't really watched many situation comedies since the 60s. Putting HBO to the side, I've only watched "Seinfeld," I think. (I've seen one episode of "Friends.") So help me out with recent examples of the great beloved idiots of the idiot box, and opine on the theory that dumb is good on TV.

Do you make a distinction between fiction and (supposedly) nonfiction shows? Maybe you love it when you know the dumb character is played by a very smart actress (like Lisa Kudrow) but you hate it when some reality show character tries to get the advantage by acting dumb or innocently gains an advantage by actually being dumb?

Another issue, quite obvious now that I've written this much, is whether it's different for males and females, and whether the physical beauty of the dummy is crucial.

"You can’t imagine the gratitude that I feel toward this particular law school."

The Wisconsin Innocence Project.

Lethal injections.

The legal challenges to lethal injections have been rather successful lately:

Their decisions are based on new evidence suggesting that prisoners have endured agonizing executions. In response, judges are insisting that doctors take an active role in supervising executions, even though the American Medical Association's code of ethics prohibits that....

The recent decisions, by contrast, rely on accounts of witnesses, post-mortem blood testing and execution logs that seem to show that executions meant to be humane have, in fact, caused excruciating pain.

The three chemicals used in lethal injections in about 35 states have long attracted attention for what critics say is their needless and dangerous complexity.

The first chemical in the series is sodium thiopental, a short-acting barbiturate. Properly administered, all sides agree, it is sufficient to render an inmate unconscious for many hours, if not to kill him. The second chemical is pancuronium bromide, a relative of curare. If administered by itself, it paralyzes the body but leaves the subject conscious, suffocating but unable to cry out. The third, potassium chloride, stops the heart and causes excruciating pain as it travels through the veins.

Problems arise, lawyers and experts for the inmates say, when poorly trained personnel make mistakes in preparing the chemicals, inserting the catheters and injecting the chemicals into intravenous lines. If the first chemical is ineffective, the other two are torturous.

In veterinary euthanasia and in assisted suicides in Oregon, a single lethal dose of a long-acting barbiturate is typically used. But corrections officials and their medical experts say using that method in executions would take too long and would subject witnesses to discomfort.

Takes too long and makes witnesses uncomfortable? How can that outweigh the interests on the other side? I imagine some of you are getting ready to write that people who get the death penalty deserve to suffer, and that's why I worry about the mental state of the person who prepares the dose of the first chemical. Now, it's known that if you skimp on it, the method of execution that was supposed to be gentle can be made excruciating. I'm not surprised that judges have responded by demanding supervision by medical personnel.

The beard and the oxygen mask.

Excessive secularism or basic science?

"American Idol" -- the final 8 sing Queen.

Ah, the show I've been waiting for. The kids sing the music of Queen. Let's see what they do.

Bucky Covington makes "Fat-Bottomed Girls" into a good country-rock song, and he's relaxed and charming. He's finally got his hair right -- loose and wavy and not too styled -- and he's wearing a leather jacket that's distractingly nice. Really, I ended up thinking about the jacket more than the song. Anyway, he didn't embarrass himself.

Ace Young is singing "We Will Rock You," and we see him trying to tell the members of Queen to play the song his way. Change the drumbeat! They decline. Simon: "It was 'we will rock you gently.'" Ryan: "What do you think of that." Ace (in a gentle voice): "I, uh, think I rocked." Well, maybe if the arrangement had been changed, it might have suited him.

Kellie Pickler gets to do "Bohemian Rhapsody." She was okay in the soft parts, but frightening in the hard parts, because of the horrendous singing but also because she started prancing in her stiletto boots up the stairs and along the narrow runway. I worried a lot. Simon, liked it and says: "On paper, it should have been completely hideous..." And she's all: "On paper???"

Chris Daughtry. The song is "Innuendo." Great! There's a lot of talk about whether it's a good song. Why didn't he do one of the hits? As if maybe he doesn't deserve votes because the song was not sufficiently familiar. Weird. But it should light a fire under his fans and get him plenty of votes.

Katharine McPhee decides to do "Who Wants to Live Forever" so she can just stand there and sing. She's heavily made-up, perhaps spoofing the over-the-top 70s style. She makes me think of Karen Carpenter for a minute, but then only to notice the lack of style and feeling. The judges are nice to her in a way that often spells doom on the show.

Elliott Yamin does "Somebody to Love." He gets some soaring high notes in.

Taylor Hicks picks the perfect song for him "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." Very entertaining. Simon: "Taylor, are you drunk? I thought it was ridiculous."

Paris Bennett sings "The Show Must Go On," a song that just feels ugly to me. She's all glammed up in a way that looks like dress-up on this sweet 16 year-old. She's got some good high notes toward the end. They're running out of time for the judges to talk, and Simon just blurts, "I found it all a little weird," and then music cuts him off.

Bottom 3? I'd say Katharine and Ace, for sure. Then maybe Paris will be unlucky again.

Safest: Taylor and Chris. Probably Kellie (she was funny talking to the judges, and she did that song everyone wanted to hear).

"Jesus, who never laughs in the canonic Gospels, is constantly laughing in this one..."

"...and it’s obviously one of those sardonic, significant, how-little-you-know laughs, like the laugh of the ruler of a dubious planet on 'Star Trek.'" Adam Gopnik reads "The Gospel of Judas. (Via A&L Daily.)

The disciples are furious at Jesus’ condescension, except for Judas, who thinks he knows what the laughter signifies. “I know who you are and where you have come from,” Judas says, standing before him. “You are from the immortal realm of Barbelo.” Apparently startled by his insight, Jesus tells Judas, “Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the Kingdom.”

The true mystery, as Jesus unveils it, is that, out beyond the stars, there exists a divine, blessed realm, free of the materiality of this earthly one. This is the realm of Barbelo, a name that gnostics gave the celestial Mother, who lives there with, among others, her progeny, a good God awkwardly called the Self-Generated One. Jesus, it turns out, is not the son of the Old Testament God, whose retinue includes a rebellious creator known as Yaldabaoth, but an avatar of Adam’s third son, Seth. His mission is to show those lucky members of mankind who still have a “Sethian” spark the way back to the blessed realm. Jesus, we learn, was laughing at the disciples’ prayer because it was directed at their God, the Old Testament God, who is really no friend of mankind but, rather, the cause of its suffering.

Which is just so hilarious.

Even if you think you hate "American Idol"....

You really ought to watch tonight. The kids are going to attempt the music of Queen.

UPDATE: Link fixed. (Sorry.)

RV movies.

Adam, at Throwing Things, ReViles the new Robin Williams movie. At his behest, I viewed the horrible, horrible trailer -- no pun intended -- for "RV." Pee-yoo!

(Okay, somebody slam me this time for hating a movie I haven't seen. I dare you!)

Anyway, there's an RV movie tradition, isn't there? I think of "Lost in America" and "About Schmidt." These were both quite good, and used the RV to good effect. And, at the edge of my consciousness, just beyond reach, there's some movie with Randy Quaid parking his RV in front of some relative's house and causing trouble.

What are the other movies of the RV genre? (And does Williams's new movie exploit all the clichés?)

What is the original RV movie? It's "The Long, Long Trailer," right?

It's a fine thing when you come home to your home and your home is gone!

Comedy gold, mined since (at least) 1954.

"The images ... bring forth a wealth of sadness in me that I cannot begin to explain."

My colleague Nina Camic writes about immigration, from her perspective as an immigrant, and has photos of people marching in Madison yesterday.

"Do not say: my mind was completely off."

Lee advises the English-deficient Lenny, on tonight's "Apprentice." Lenny's a little, why not?, I was really tired. Adorable!

Lenny is ousted, after he chooses to bring Lee back. Outrageous! Lee helped him, stood by him, and he fingered him. As they are leaving, Trump says: "And Lee, your loyalty was very nice."

Hey, it's a double episode!

Michael "is SUCH wanker" -- according to the guy with the English accent. The team won, but they lambasted Michael back at the hotel. In the new episode, Trump asks if anyone wants to switch teams, and Michael, smartly, decides to move.

"It will completely change your whole concept of reality." -- That's the desperate sales pitch for the pizza sandwich: P'eatzza.

So the teams try to sell P'eatzza, and who really cares what the problems were? Bottom line: the price point was too high. "Leslie, you fired. Phfeehrwhf!"

First person to be fired on her birthday? Oh, spare me. You know, if you are an adult, your birthday is an irrelevancy. With your spouse, you can act as if it's a big issue. But for the rest of the world: we don't care.

CORRECTION: I had the "wanker" quote slightly off -- not completely off -- and just fixed it. Thought you'd like to know. Not really. Thought some blogger ethics required me to confess.

1966.

Sippican Cottage, one of our very best commenters -- he kicked ass in the punk thread -- is writing about music, and focusing on 1966. I'm utterly charmed by this, and I've got to point to this old post of mine, which picked 1966 as the greatest year for music. (I was torn between 1965 and 1966, and "Substitute" determined the outcome.)

My Dinner With Camille.

So, remember that old post of mine about Camille Paglia: "Try to survive a tornado with a post-structuralist"?

And then remember that great BlogAd for Paglia's book "Break, Blow, Burn"? You can see the ad on the BlogAds page showing the best BlogAds (scroll down to the third ad). See how it links to my post and uses my name? The ad ran in the premium slot on my blog for quite a while.

Anyway, Paglia is returning to Madison to give a big lecture tomorrow. At the request of the promoters of the lecture, I did a post on this blog to encourage people to come to it, and I linked back to the old "tornado" post, saying her recent appearance in Madison had been amusing. A couple days later, I received a phone call inviting me to the pre-speech dinner with Paglia. I accepted the invitation.

But what's this? Suddenly, I'm uninvited! Camille Paglia has actually read "Try to survive a tornado with a post-structuralist," and -- I'm told -- she's angry and hurt by what I said about her. The very material that was used to promote the book has become a reason to demand that my invitation to the dinner be withdrawn. Okaaaaayyyy....

For 15 years, I've thought of Camille Paglia as an unusually tough and feisty woman. Wasn't she the one who sneered at women who acted like fragile victims?

Ah, well, it's true: despite my light touch and detailed coverage, the post was rather damning. Go back and read it, and you'll see. Funny, though, then, that you used the post to advertise the book.

And I don't blame her for not wanting to be stressed out at a dinner before a big speech. I didn't know I was capable of stressing out such a big rockstar diva. But apparently, I am. With the very post that her people saw fit to promote her with. That's too funny!

UPDATE: Look how the BlogAds blog praised Camille Paglia's ad precisely because of the way it included me:

There's some post-modern intertextual polymorphic joy (not forgetting that Paglia hates post-modernism) in the fact that Paglia's publisher bought an ad on Anne Althouse's blog quoting an Althouse post that quoted Paglia saying: "Once you’re 'swept up in the blogosphere,' you become self-referential."

Hey, you can have fun with advertising! Let's get out of the stiff and starched print-it-once-a-month-and-pray-that-someone-reads-it mentality. This Paglia ad is a wonderful respite from book blogads with blurry images sporting mumbling unreadable text, the bain of my existence.

(It's Ann, without the e!)

So, you can have fun with advertising, but it's back to the stiff and starched when it's time to make out the dinner list...

Give Bucky a big kiss!

(Badger Herald photo. Story.)