Me: Frank Lynch

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These are my mundane daily ramblings.
For something less spontaneous, I maintain The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page (over 1,800 Johnson quotes).

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Michaela Petri. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like she's playing the sopranino recorder, which is a 4th higher than the soprano you might have learned to play in grade school. (And thus considerably smaller, and more difficult to finger if your hands aren't proportionately smaller. It's half the size of the alto she normally plays most.) Whether it's the soprano or the sopranino, it's no easy feat to change registers like she does without making it squeak and send you for the hinterland. And she doesn't; but of course, she's one of the best.

I had the pleasure of hearing her in Carnegie's recital hall about 20 years ago (a fairly intimate space), and would love to again. (And if you need to know, the voice I most love to play is the tenor, though I have bass up to sopranino.)
Link | | | 10:03 PM | Home

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign... Montreal Gazette has a post on extremely confusing road signs. Kind of tough to appreciate while you're sitting in front of a computer, but imagine yourself as on the road, new to the area, and maybe even distractions from all the passenger seats. (HT to The Transportationist.)
Link | | | 9:39 PM | Home

Please don't tell the children... If they get wind that their allowances are going up, but not as much as they thought, they'll think their allowance is being cut.
Link | | | 9:21 PM | Home

Why is so and so on my Tee Vee, Atrios often asks, in response to the frequent appearances of people who should have been dropped a long time ago. You know, like the people who led us into Iraq; not just the neocons, but the liberal hawks who parlayed an "I'm breaking ranks" context into face time. Well, Rich Lowry is more of the first type rather the second (Kenneth Pollack, etc.), but in reponse to National Review's Rich Lowry being on C-SPAN, a caller metaphorically asked: why keep driving a car that's always breaking down?
Link | | | 9:10 PM | Home
 

So you should have expected something like this. So we're supposed to care? Look, if the way we treated Guantanamo detainees and played with their trials surprises you, it's your own damned fault. And if you're not surprised, well then it isn't really news, is it?

Sullivan ordered the Justice Department to notify other judges of the psychiatric records so they could assess whether the government's failure to reveal the extent of the witness's mental problems have bearing on other detainee cases.

Court records appear to indicate that the witness had an antisocial personality disorder. In a legal brief, Batarfi's lawyers point out the diagnosis could mean the person is prone to lying and lacks regard for the difference between right and wrong.

"Given the nature of the medical records about this particular detainee it is difficult to conceive how the government might offer him as a credible witness," said Batarfi's lawyer, Bill Murphy, who said he couldn't reveal information about the witness because of a court order.

Talk about tainted fruit...
Link | | | 9:18 PM | Home
 

JUST in case you missed it, they found Waldo. In New Jersey. But kind of in the sense of I am Spartacus. (In a semi-related comment, we watched The Wind That Shakes The Barley last night, and I half expected a bunch of Irish prisoners to take that approach when the Brits came looking for their leader. But it didn't happen. Good movie nonetheless, add it to your queue.)

In passing let me just apologize for forced silence here, and lack of a fresh photo: a cable in the neighborhood "somehow" snapped, and the block was without all land-line service for about 28 hours. You'll get a picture later tonight, I promise.
Link | | | 6:04 PM | Home
 

Dare we risk bipartisanship?? DARE we? Congress is the kind of establishment where our elected representatives gather 'round the campfire, and I swear, if they're not singing campfire songs and joining the campfire girls, they're making s'mores. This kind of collegial atmosphere is a capital N, capital T "National Treasure" which should not be treated lightly. Why, it's practically purple mountain majesties, amber waves of grain, and Irving Berlin all rolled up in one. Basically, thou shalt not f--- with my offer to be bipartisan.

O.

K.?

So I was chastened by warnings that Senate Democratic maneuvers to avoid Republican fillibusters in a kind of en passant (look that one up yourself, we don't footnote everything!) by putting the budget through a reconciliation process instead of other procedures has evoked a "I'm going to take my ball and go home" response:

Republican Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming likened reconciliation to "a declaration of war," and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, said the White House could turn legislation into a "purely partisan exercise."

I hear them: bipartisanship is precious, especially when it's based on principles rather than a sentimental "can't we all just get along?" (Look that up yourself, too.) I mean, it's apparent from recent history (not) that Republicans have been avoiding obstructionism.

A random aside, having nothing to do with anything above. Did you know that Samuel Johnson notes that crocodiles in Lobo's Voyage To Abyssinia "devour their prey without tears"? I have no idea what made me think of that, it was totally random.

Now, in fairness, this kind of rhetoric has happened on both sides of the aisle, and with both sides doing wonderful backflips over their own histories, even as they point out each other's inconsistencies. Watch this clip, not only as it shows NH Senator Gregg but also Speaker Pelosi (it's all worth watching, but the relevant part starts around 4:30; in metric, that's 4:30):

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