Nightly Ramble:The Dinosaurs Meet the Meteors; More

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

Friday. TGIF (Toes go in First).  Lots doing before the weekend, though. Hold on tight, here we go:

• The Dinosaurs are dying off at a faster pace, now. If there’s a positive thing to be had aside from the Unions being laid low, it’s the Dinosaur press being dismantled. The Denver Post is reporting that something like 30 different newspapers around the country are up for sale… and nobody’s buying. The Rocky Mountain News, particularly, is on that list and the word is the place ‘may’ close. Rocky alone has lost over $15MUSD this year.  My read, based on what I see in the public channels is that announcements to close will come in January, barring some buyer somewhere. And still, amazingly, the message isn’t getting through as to the cause. It’s not the medium, people, and it’s not the economy. It’s the content.
• Example on the content issues; Why is it that we have to turn to Krauthammer’s opinion column to learn of the massive successes in Iraq? If that’s not hard news, what in the world IS?
• Oil’s at $44/BBL. I’m telling ya… I feel a road trip coming on.
• Still getting cooler. And no, it;’s not man made. It’s that big yellow thing.
• Boy George on a kidnapping charge? I think I’ll pass on commenting here. Just call it an overly target rich environment.
• On a similar note; Paris Hilton wants to play Tinkerbell for Disney? I’m not going there, either, except to note the link is for the SanFranChron. Tink. San Fran… Yeah, I guess that works.
• I note the Wall Street Journal saying Plaxico Burris should be freed on the basis of the unconstitutionality of New York’s anti-gun laws. They have a valid point. And before anyone starts in on me about my previous comments on the subject, particularly the NFL’s reaction… those comments speak to his screwing up his ability to play. I’ve no problem with folks carrying firearms, nor should NY, or the NFL. My concern was that the person carrying should have at least one fully functional brain cell. The NFL and the team protecting their interests are quite a number of steps away from the legality nightmare that Burris has found himself in with the state. The former seems justified to me. The latter is not. Beck and McPhillips add theirs.
• More from the WSJ on the Rich/Holder thing. I’m telling you… again…. the Rich pardon was paid for with this appointment.
• Must be nice, Reynolds.
• A first place for the Boss at OTB’s Caption Contest. Only trouble is, that goose wasn’t bald. Oh, well.
• The jury is in, on Charlie Rangel. I wonder if the Democrats are listening?
• Just a thought, here… Remember when Obama was visiting his supposedly dying grandmother? Why is it the Honolulu Coroner didn’t handle the case? Why is there no record of death for the woman? What happened to the funeral?
• Can you imagine being a farmer and being told you’re going to get taxed for cow farts?
• Ask me again why I’ve never involved myself in Facebook.
• I’m sure this is going to start the feedback counter going again,  but I’m going to pass along something from Reynolds, along with a few thoughts.
  

  IN THE MAIL: Norah Vincent’s Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin. Long-time InstaPundit readers may recall that Vincent spent a year living as a man for her book Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Year Disguised as a Man. The book was terrific — our interview with Vincent about that is here — but apparently living as a man was stressful enough to induce a nervous breakdown. I can understand that . . . .

  Frankly, so can I. Look, there’s a lot of potholes on this road… and I’ll be the first to admit it. But, follow me here.  One of the things I’ve noted among medical reports over the last fourty or so years is the ever increasing number of heart attacks stroke, and just stress related issues, among women… and I see this as being in near parallel with the degree to which women have found themselves on ‘equal footing’ with men. They end up having the same maladies as men, as a direct result. Clearly, women are as ill-equipped to deal with stresses as the men have been, despite the male of the species ahvng dealt with such stresses for centuries. Up until recently, women have always been removed from such stresses by social roles imposed on them. the result is they far outlived their male counterparts.  Now, not so much. Gals… are you sure this is what you really wanted when your anthem was “I am woman, hear me roar’?  Women are starting to learn this was not the panacea they sought. Look, gang, there’s a reason the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Mostly, more fertilizer’s being spread around over there. Mind, I’d not go back to how things were… but there’s an object lesson here about there being a reason societies develop as they do, and it’s not always as negative as some would say. I wonder if militant feminism’s hold being lessened, isn’t a direct result of women finding that out for themselves.

• The jobs report is about as expected. But I wonder how much of this cutting is needless. Remember I mentioned the other day that the first victim of government is truth? Case in point.