Angle-Grinder Man to the rescue

US immigration turned back a gay, legally married Canadian couple who declared themselves a family on their Customs form.

I can remember when Thomas Friedman was sane and intelligent, and worth reading even when he was wrong. Now, none of that applies, except in as much as he’s worth reading to see what stupid thing he’ll say next. This week he admitted that the war he pushed so hard for in Iraq is a failure, and it’s all the fault of the French, who want us to fail. A good letter responded that it’s more like someone trying to take the car keys away from a drunk.

The Cal. secretary of state agrees with me that a postponed recall election means the process does start all over again. By the way, there are at least 9 certified write-in candidates as well as the 135 dwarfs. Don’t know who the 9 are yet.

In an election where casino money plays such a big role, it’s appropriate that the court challenge is such a crap shoot. First it was heard by a fairly liberal 3-member panel of the 9th Circuit, now it will be heard by an 11-member panel chosen randomly but accidentally the 11 most conservative members of the court. I could never figure what the point of the first panel was, since it was obviously going to be appealed upwards, and the second panel just seems more of the same.

The Cal. Lege votes for gay domestic partnerships, with inheritance, property, child support and other miscellaneous rights and obligations, not quite as good as Vermont but what the hell. Referring to a proposition against gay marriage passed 3½ years ago, one Republican legislator says, "This is a bill that looks at the people of California and says we don't care what you think.” Funny, your position looks at the people of California and says we don’t care what you think, only what sort of genitalia you have.

The US is pressuring the EU not to test chemicals for harmful medical effects.

Observer investigation of the Bush admin’s interference in research on global warming, in which they censored reports and recruited oil-company-funded lobby groups to attack their own scientists and indeed their own head of the EPA.

The Sunday Times says some Israeli Air Force pilots have been refusing to undertake missions that would kill civilians.

The paper also has an article--I’ll give the link, which may or may not work for you--about the CIA recruiting from Saddam’s secret police for their knowledge of Baathists, Iran, and Syria.

There’s also a lovely piece about the Bombay Police’s “Dirty Harry,” a cop who has killed--so far--87 suspects. None of the people he shot ever lived. He has been a cop 13 years. His bosses see no problem with this, and there are Bollywood movies about him.