Lawyer-Wearing-Yarmulka

A few months ago became harder and harder to find Tam Tams in stores. For those who don't know, what a Tam Tam is, it's probably the greatest cracker in the world. Manischewitz has been making it for decades. They're perfect for dips, especially chumus. A Shabbos kiddush is not the same without a nice piece of matjes herring on a Tam Tam. But lately, they're nowhere to be found.

The New York Times reports why- it seems they've been having equipment problems, but they should be back on the shelves after Pesach.

I'm really sick of the media and the left constantly parroting the line that McCain wants us fighting in Iraq for the next 100 years.

So is Charles Krauthammer.

There is another analogy to the kind of benign and strategically advantageous "presence" McCain was suggesting for postwar Iraq: Kuwait. The United States (with allies) occupied Kuwait in 1991 and has remained there with a major military presence for 17 years. We debate dozens of foreign policy issues in this country. I've yet to hear any serious person of either party call for a pullout from Kuwait.

In the elevator today a guy asked me about my yarmulka. He wanted to know if I wear it all the time, or only on special occasions.

I was thinking of messing with him and say that I only wear it for special occasions. When he would ask what today was, I was going to say Hamover.

97%ALCOHOLIC

The Wall Street Journal and William Kristol discuss the recent Pentagon report that details Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism, and wonder why the White House is staying silent.

WSJ:

The redacted version of "Saddam and Terrorism" is the most definitive public assessment to date from the Harmony program, the trove of "exploitable" documents, audio and video records, and computer files captured in Iraq. On the basis of about 600,000 items, the report lays out Saddam's willingness to use terrorism against American and other international targets, as well as his larger state sponsorship of terror, which included harboring, training and equipping jihadis throughout the Middle East.

Kristol:

So, this week's fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war will bring us countless news stories reexamining the case for war, with the White House essentially pleading nolo contendere. Even though there is abundant evidence that Iraq was a serious state sponsor of terrorism--and would almost certainly have become a greater one if Saddam had been left in power--most Americans will assume there was no real Saddam-terror connection. After all, they haven't heard the Bush administration say otherwise.

What is it with Americans and a distinct lack of knowledge of basic economics. About once every few months I get an email from a friend urging me to boycott certain oil companies who allegedly get most of their oil from the Middle East. Instead, I should only buy from certain companies that are get their oil from the U.S., Canada, etc...

Now, Snopes has a page on this email. And yes, you should always check Snopes before you forward a chain email. But you shouldn't need Snopes here.

Boycotts only work when you can use a substitute product or refrain from using the product at all. But the substitute for a barrel of oil is still a barrel of oil. The markets don't care where it came from. Even if Middle Eastern gas was dyed green and and all other gas was dyed blue, it still wouldn't matter. Oil is fungible. As soon as everyone starts buying "blue" gas, there's going to be shortage of it, and vendors will simply buy "green" gas.

In about 6 weeks, I'm going to start getting emails asking me to participate in a gas boycott on May 15th, in a futile attempt to lower gas prices. Again, basic economics says that boycotting a product for one day does absolutely nothing. You're still going to have to fill up your tank at some point and it doesn't matter if you do it on the 14th, 15th, or 16th.

About a year and a half ago, my sister came home from high school and said that her principle claimed that gas prices were going down because the politicians decided to lower them before the November elections. This is coming from woman with at least one PhD. The friends who email me are usually highly educated professionals. They all should know better, but they don't for some reason.

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring

I bet no one saw that coming. There has got to be a lot of righteous tongue-clucking going on right now.

As for me, I just can't stop laughing.

[UPDATE]

Fox is reporting that Spitzer has been indicted.

There was a brief moment, a few weeks ago, where I seriously thought that I would vote for Obama/ Hillary should McCain win the GOP nomination. I am not a McCain fan, and I figured that I'd rather have a real Democrat in the White House than a Republican that often acts like one.

Well, I got over that real quickly for a variety of reasons. Here's one that I for some reason did not give much though to until reading this.

Edward Whelan discusses what kind of judges Obama would likely appoint to the Supreme Court, and his underlying Constitutional theories.

He also digs up this quote from Obama:

"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old--and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges."

God save this honorable Court if he's elected.

Michael Gerson, over at the Washington Post, imagines what Obama's first 100 days would look like if he actually follows through with he has said on the campaign trail.

Obama's 100-day agenda would be designed, in part, to improve America's global image. But there is something worse than being unpopular in the world -- and that is being a pleading, panting joke. By simultaneously embracing appeasement, protectionism and retreat, President Obama would manage to make Jimmy Carter look like Teddy Roosevelt.

Gerson goes on to say that it's highly unlikely that Obama would actually go through with all that he said, i.e., he's not going to sit down unconditionally with Iran, he's not going to pull out of NAFTA, and he certainly isn't going to immediately pull out of Iraq.

John McCain has said that he doesn't understand economics as well as he should.

Well, apparently he doesn't understand science either. No, Senator McCain, Thimerosal doesn't cause autism.

Maybe he's been listening too much to Don Imus.

How in good conscience can I vote for this guy?