Last week I mentioned that the gangster and convicted felon Andrei "The Pimple" Klimentyev had been elected mayor of Russia's 3rd-largest city Novgorod. I neglected to follow up when he was deposed almost immediately on a fraud charge, which turned out to be for making campaign promises he couldn't possibly fulfill.

Looking at Clinton's continued popularity, Bob Packwood is thinking about going back into politics. The Slate suggests the slogan "Still Packing Wood".

The British, who are slow but steady in these matters, have figured out who the four people were who killed King Harold in 1066. The descendants of one of them are still farming the 4,000 acres they were given as a reward.

In 1984, the California Department of Corrections removed from its list of official goals "rehabilitation".

William Safire's NY Times column for today decries Clinton's being allowed to make far-reaching arguments for executive privilege in secret session, for no obvious legitimate reason. Andrew Sullivan's op-ed piece notes that while Clinton opposes job discrimination against gays, as commander in chief he has now fired more gays than any other employer in the US. Sullivan asks "Is is too much to ask that this President finally live up to his own words? Or with this President, is that now utterly beside the point?" I assume that's a rhetorical question, Andrew.