War Is Just God's Way of Teaching Americans Geography

... except that as usual with God's ways, it doesn't work very well. But it's still a great line, one of Jon Stewart's best. (Well, his writers'.)



FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Media) has a good media advisory on the coverage of the Russian (I almost wrote "Soviet" there) attack on Georgia, and provide some helpful historical background.

Be sure to watch the clip if you want to see what Dubya was doing with those scantily clad female beach volleyball players -- still photos don't do it justice. And I was wondering what was going on when I saw that photo of W being lifted from his seat by the Secret Service; Wonkette (via) and many others have concluded he was drunk. (More similar photos here.) At least he didn't throw up on anyone.

Listen to this song by Nicola Griffith's early-1980s band Jane's Plane. It's good haunting stuff, especially for a recording made "after much drinking" at 2 a.m. I'm presently rereading Griffith's first novel Ammonite, which for some reason didn't do much for me when I first read it, but now (maybe because I've read her later books) it makes a powerful impression.