Good news, and good news on PA-SEN race.

‘A bad harvest, and a bloody primary!’

The good news: Pat Toomey’s (R Cand, PA) campaign (donate here) is reporting that he raised 1.6 million dollars in the second quarter of 2009.

Mr. Toomey’s strong first campaign quarter fundraising compares favorably with those of successful U.S. Senate challengers in the last election. In fact, he has raised more than every successful 2008 challenger. In his first quarter as a Senate candidate, Mr. Toomey has raised more than candidates Al Franken (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kay Hagen (D-NC), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Mark Begich (D-AK), all of whom went on to defeat incumbent U.S. senators

The other good news: Joe Sestak’s (D Cand, PA) primary campaign against Arlen Specter (Arlen Specter, PA) is being reasonably well funded. Continue reading Good news, and good news on PA-SEN race.

Kim Jong-il may be dying of pancreatic cancer.

Not a nice way to go, if true.

SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who suffered a stroke last August, was also found to have “life-threatening” pancreatic cancer around the same time, a South Korean cable television network reported on Monday.

The network, YTN, a cable news station, quoted unidentified Chinese and South Korean intelligence sources for the report, which was made by YTN’s correspondent in Beijing. The station did not explain how the sources obtained the sensitive medical information from North Korea, an isolated, nuclear-armed state that has kept details of its leader’s health a closely guarded secret.

So, what should I have for lunch? I was thinking maybe Mexican, but that would involve driving, and the place doesn’t have a drive-through. I could just grab something at the supermarket when I go – it’s within walking distance and the kid loves stroller rides – but it’s usually not really cost-efficient. Maybe I’ll just have a peanut butter sandwich.

Moe Lane

PS: You know what a common side-effect of pancreatic cancer is? Malnutrition. Which just goes to show: karma has a long memory.

Crossposted to RedState.

New York Senate Drama! Showdown! Conflict! Pay Raises!

And nary a word on the subject of same-sex marriage bills.

And here I thought that opportunities to report on the NY Senate’s shenanigans had passed, once Espada flip-flopped back to being a Democrat.  I was wrong:

Elite get fat pay hikes amid Senate stalemate
Democrats reward key staff with up to $32,000 while hitting GOP

ALBANY — Eleven of the state Senate’s highest-paid staffers received raises of up to $32,000 when it appeared likely Democrats would lose control of the chamber during the five-week leadership fight.

The combined increases will cost taxpayers $200,000 annually.

[snip]

Because many of the raises were backdated, staffers are paid the additional cash in a lump sum, said Jennifer Freeman, spokeswoman to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. As a result, staffers expected fat paychecks of thousands of dollars in backdated raises at the exact time that Sampson was accusing Senate Republicans of stalling legislation in an attempt to seize the spoils of majority leadership.

I’d like to note two things about this: Continue reading New York Senate Drama! Showdown! Conflict! Pay Raises!

I should have known better.

When something appears that touches upon an expert’s primary field of study – for example, these shoes:

pr_vibram_fivefingers_kso_f

…and it doesn’t immediately appear on that expert’s blog, it might be because he or she hadn’t seen it yet. But then, it might also be because said expert hit that stuff two years ago, as he very civilly pointed out in comments.

Also: I am ‘super-fantastic.’  Which I personally feel is an excellent affirmation with which to start my work week.

Moe Lane

With a rousing cry of ‘Terra vult,’ no doubt*.

Mark Steyn, with a little of the class warfare, particularly as it applies to global warming aristos. Or should that be theocrats?  I’m not really an expert in research theology.

One assumes Gar Smith is sincere in his fetishization of bucolic African poverty, with its vibrantly rampant disease and charmingly unspoilt life expectancy in the mid-forties. But when a hereditary prince starts attacking capitalism and pining for the days when a benign sovereign knew what was best for the masses, he gives the real game away. Capitalism is liberating: You’re born a peasant but you don’t have to die one.

You can work hard and get a nice place in the suburbs. If you were a 19th-century Russian peasant and you got to Ellis Island, you’d be living in a tenement on the Lower East Side, but your kids would get an education and move uptown, and your grandkids would be doctors and accountants in Westchester County. And your great-grandchild would be a Harvard-educated environmental activist demanding an end to all this electricity and indoor toilets.

Environmentalism opposes that kind of mobility. It seeks to return us to the age of kings, when the masses are restrained by a privileged elite.

…you know, I think that Al Gore would probably seriously groove to being able to hierophant out with a staff, miter, and long, flowing robes. No, not one made out of hemp: didn’t you hear? Secondhand smoke kills.

Moe Lane Continue reading With a rousing cry of ‘Terra vult,’ no doubt*.

CNN gets flipped the blue crane.

(Via Instapundit) That being the national bird of South Africa, which is where I believe Ms. Nkepile Mabuse hails from. I mention this because she very enjoyably made American CNN talking head Don Lemon look like an idiot:

The deliberate mention of President Bush in a favorable context by Ms. Mabuse was probably just a with-malice-aforethought garnish to the main dish of don’t-condescend-about-us-Yank that she served to Lemon, but who cares? – Although I do wish that the more egregious Obama-boosters both in and out of the media would take care to control their enthusiasms in public. As you’ve just seen, it can make the rest of us look somewhat provincial to international eyes.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

[UPDATE] Nah, that’s just the Orbital Mind Control Lasers, Tommy. Don’t worry about it.