Dr.Frank catalogs the inability of the INS to do anything except screw around with law-abiding citizens-to-be. (If links aren't working then scroll down to "So That's Why They Let Him In") I'm generally in favor of much more open immigration, and Lee (of course) has first-hand knowledge of how much the INS suXors. Maybe he'll write his thoughts after the green card process is all done.

Glenn Reynolds comments on the same piece of art as Lileks, although he's less concerned with the newspaper reporting of same.

James Lileks writes about a newpaper article about a painting about a touchy subject. (Follow the pointers, people!) He sandpapers all the shiny bits off to reveal the racism underneath in a truly lovely fashion.

If the link doesn't work for you, it's the last article. Just scroll down to "Today is FRIDAY"

My beloved wife reads those icky things too, so now I know what to buy her for Saturnalia. Super! Thanks!

P.S. I'm with you on the Yorkshiremen thing.

Okay ... a quick article from a woman who decided to become a professional escort at the age of 57. No comment, really, but it was an interesting view into another space.

Maybe its my own informed self-interest speaking, but why is it that the British have the Reading Reform Foundation and we have the NEA? That seems grossly unfair; we need an RRF of our own.

I was just emailed this by a cow-orker: Opera Baby. Not an incredible work, even in the genre, but twee has its place, damn it!

Ahhhh!!! My eyes! My eyes! (Once again, links aren't working. If you can't figure out which picture I'm talking about, I'll thwack you later)

Well, maybe he can take Donahue's time slot. I'd watch at least once in the hopes that he'd break out the glitter sunglasses and the feather boa.

Note to self: leave misanthropy at home if I decide to visit Merrie Olde England, as it could conceivably land me in the clink. Suspicion of making racist threats? What exactly is a racist threat? Can I still call people "clueless morons"? Or is that offensive to Moron-Americans and thus racist by definition? Are there Moron-English who would be likewise offended that I didn't call them Moron-UKers? My head hurts.

Mindles H. Dreck heaves a big ol' helping of scorn and derision on Selena Roberts' histrionic jeremaid about Augusta National. You damn skippy she's around the bend!

Stan Lee sues Marvel. The short story is that Marvel says that the blockbuster movie "Spiderman" didn't actually make any money. Uhhhhh. Yeah. Okay. Um.

It just goes to show: your mileage may vary. I've got a puny little D-Link WAP in my house and it just barely provides 5Mb/s over the main living areas dropping down to 2Mb/s in the basement. I've started looking into antennas and other arcane radio bits well beyond my competence, but now I've seen what it looks like when the pros get involved. 72 miles!!!! Dayum!

I totally forget how I found this graphical adventure. I was looking at The World Wide Rant (or at least his page is still open in its own window), so it's probably Andy's fault somehow.

Ummmm. I'll take "Too Much Time On My Hands" for $1000, Alex. (Found via The World Wide Rant)

Well, now ... that just isn't fair, is it? I mean, asking the school system to choose a teaching method based on measurable effectiveness is just too much. Silly man, imagining that public "education" is about anything except indoctrination. Blech.

Hmmmm ... the University of California system is rolling out a new twist to the admissions process in that "accomplishments and personal circumstances" (read: sob stories about how poor and miserable your upbringing was) would weigh heavily. Now they're deploying a verification service. As suggested (rather indirectly) by The Cranky Professor, I wonder how to go about monetizing this. Is it just as simple as fabricating a paper trail? No actual counterfeiting involved, just a statement from a few dummy corporations and/or non-profits that yes, little Johnny was quite disenfranchised as a youth? Maybe I should open a branch office there in CA.

From the Volokh Conspiracy,. a highly amusing story about the meaning and value of professional certifications. Since the link doesn't appear to go to the correct place, I'll cut-n-paste it here inline:

Zoe D. Katze has an impressive-looking set of credentials -- Ph.D., C.Ht., DAPA. She has been board-certified by three major hypnotherapy associations and holds diplomate status in the American Psychotherapy Association.

Not bad for a 6-year-old house cat. . . .

[Zoe is] Philadelphia psychologist Steve K.D. Eichel's cat. Eichel had a point he had been wanting to make about the proliferation of bogus credentialing organizations over the past 10 or 20 years.

So he decided to credential his cat.

To do that, Eichel first had to get his cat some credit, which turned out to be the hardest part of the process. The credit card company's agent initially asked for Zoe's Social Security number, Eichel says, but cheerfully relented when Eichel told him it wasn't readily available. Zoe was then added to Eichel's account as an authorized user.

To get Zoe her first credential, Eichel says, he simply filled out an "application for certification" on a lay hypnosis association's Web site and charged the fee to his credit card under Zoe's name. Since most lay hypnosis associations have reciprocity agreements, he says, it was a snap getting Zoe board-certified by two other credentialing organizations.

Eichel then decided to go for the gold: diplomate status in the American Psychotherapy Association, which, according to its own promotional literature, "is limited to a select group of professionals who, by virtue of their extensive training and expeexpertise, have demonstrated their outstanding abilities in regard to their specialty." . . .

Zoe got the APA certification.

Geek alert! Joel Spolsky has written a new essay, this one about The Law of Leaky Abstractions.

BWA-hahahahaha! See, honey? It's not just me that's like that!!!!

Well, the Iraqi parliament has unanimously rejected the UN proposal. They still have until Friday to comply, but they seem to be openly stating their defiance so far.

Hah! Given this, how long before you can just buy an "out-of-body adventure" kit? Would it play well at a rave? What if it included black lights? (Found via The World Wide Rant.)

You tell 'em, Jim. And there's even a Seanbaby reference in there! That's three great memes that meme great together!

So when is spousal abuse not actually spousal abuse? According to Nancy Scannell of Jane Doe Inc., if a woman hits her husband it doesn't count ... only husbands hitting wives counts as spousal abuse. Uhhhhhh ... maybe I'm slow, but how in the world could you draw a meaningful distinction there? It seems to me that if hitting your spouse is bad for men, then surely it's bad for women to do the same?

Okay, so now tell me again about how Saddam and his sycophants are rational actors? You mean "rational like the EU" (which is not very rational at all), or "rational like Muhammad and Malvo when the police surrounded their car" or maybe an entirely new definition of "rational" that involves sticking your head into the meat grinder. (found viaf Virginia Postrel.)

Dag! I'm only about 200K short right now.

Ummmm ... okay. Ahem.

Waaaaaah!!! No NV30 this year!!!! Waaaah! I'll have to console myself with a lowly Radeon 9700, I suppose.

BWA-hahahahaha! You think?

you have an ominosity quotient of six. you are really ominous. find out your ominosity quotient.

Is that good? I can't tell.

Woo-hoo! Hit'em again!!!!

From the "things that make you go hmmmm" department: London European Foreign Affairs Commisioner Chris Patten has turned down a European legislator who wants an investigation into alleged illegal use of EU aid to the Palestinian Authority. "How come?" I say in my best thick country yokel accent. "What you tryin' to hide?" I add.

Don't feel bad ... it could happen to anybody. An on-air Fox News anchor (his name I don't know) makes an amusing gaffe talking about J-Lo and her "root" in the Bronx.

I've given Microsoft's new "offering", the Tablet PC, almost exactly no thought whatsoever. I don't want a box that expects me to write crap on it by hand for two reasons: (1) my handwriting suXors hard, and (2) I type significantly faster than I write. A box that expects to use handwriting (a.k.a. "ink") as the primary input is doomed as far as targeting me as a consumer. (That goes for Palms too, by the bye. I keep buying them because I like gadgets, but I keep not using them. My RIM interactive pager, though, has a keyboard and I use the damned thing fifty times a day.)

Timothy Dyck, publishing in eWeek, takes a similarly dim view of the things.

Ummmm ... I have no reason to blog this, nor do I really have any commentary. I'll just say "Go USA" and leave it at that.