A Bone Fide Scoop!

I don't know what kind of sickos constitute this grand city of ours, but one thing's for sure: they're pretty damn dedicated. Yesterday, I was walking along Hicks and Degraw, when I suddenly spotted what looked like dog feces with a toothpick flag through each individual....uh...piece. On closer examination, each of the flags featured the unmistakable likeness of our President, George W. Bush. My question is: what is this supposed to mean exactly? Don't get me wrong, I'm fascinated by it, but does anyone out there know the deeper significance? Is there one? Will this sort of thing replace stenciling? I'm scared.

The Lowdown on John G.

So far, this is what now.org has dug up about the man who will most likely be our newest Supreme Court justice:

• Former Deputy Solicitor for Kenneth Starr.
• Associate White House counsel for four years under the Reagan Administration.
• Overturning Roe was such a primary focus of the Reagan Administration's Justice Department that during an oral argument by the nominee to the Supreme Court a Justice asked, "Mr. Roberts, in this case, are you asking that Roe v. Wade be overruled?" His reply was, "No your honor, the issue doesn't even come up." To this the justice replied, "Well that hasn't prevented the Solicitor General from taking that position in prior cases."*

And so on and so on.... Check it out:
John G. Roberts [now.org]

J.K. Rowling Is More Popular Than Jesus

The new Harry Potter book sold an unbelievable 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours, breaking the record held by the previous Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

It's not only the richest opening in publishing history, but tops the combined estimated take for the weekend's top two movies, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Wedding Crashers." This says volumes about either Rowling's ridiculous level of popularity or the incredible slump in which the movie industry finds itself.

In an interesting sidenote, all 6.9 million purchasers of the book were outraged to learn that their newly acquired Potter books consisted entirely of the words: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" repeated endlessly throughout the book's 400 pages. One reader claimed "I'm disappointed, but I'll bet it was more entertaining than Wedding Crashers."

- New Potter Book Breaks Sales Records [AP]

Should Karl Be Kut? Prez Repeatedly Ignores Question

Well, I can't say that I'm surprised, but in the past few days the Bush administration has repeatedly ignored questions regarding Karl Rove's dismissal, and White House spokesman Scott McClellan has been quoted as saying "any individual who works here at the White House has the confidence of the president." McClellan said that includes Rove.

Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, said Rove did not disclose Valerie Plame's actual name. Critics, including Joe Biden, say that this is hardly the point, as Rove identified her as the Ambassador's wife.

A wonderful quote from Al Franken regarding President Bush's eerie silence: "If you were Charlie McCarthy, would you fire Edgar Bergen?"

'Nuff said.

- White House: Bush Has Confidence in Rove [Washington Post]

A Nation Under One God

I was looking over some old shows the other day, and I came across the very first Saturday Night Live (then titled NBC's Saturday Night). It features a monologue from George Carlin where he condemns the self-centered concept of God common in most of the Western Hemisphere. It is an incredible and funny monologue, but I watched it thinking that there is no way such an intelligent (albeit, humorous) discussion regarding the existence of God could ever be aired on national television nowadays. That is not to say that Carlin's remarks went by unnoticed or unchallenged: Cardinal Cooke, Archbishop of New York at the time of the broadcast, was said to have seen Carlin's monologue. Cooke, along with his staff, sent many letters of protest to NBC's corporate offices. SNL survived anyway, largely due to NBC's belief in the show outweighing the muscle of Cooke's "bully pulpit," also known as the Catholic Church.

Since today, July 4th, is the day in which we celebrate our alleged freedom of religion and speech, it seemed a wonderful reminder of how little U.S. citizens have of either in the new millennium.

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