I knew it:

Did I call it, or did I call it? :)

UPDATE: The Post used one of the headlines that I failed to think of in my list (though one of the commenters did think of it):

For more of today’s newspaper front pages, click here to view the Newseum’s excellent thumbnail gallery. (But click quick — they’ll all be replaced in less than 24 hours with tomorrow’s newspaper front pages!)

Becky has posted a kitten update over on the SHA blog. Lynx has been renamed Sasha, Butter and Toby are becoming fast friends, and all the cats are reportedly adorable. Awwww.

Andrew Sullivan has interrupted his weeklong blogging hiatus to rejoice: “Yay! A pro-gay, pro-choice, hard-ass Republican!” Heh.

Meanwhile, Eugene Volokh — referring to another California candidate who announced today, Arianna Huffington — says, “it will be quite an accent-off: Arnold vs. Arianna.” Again, heh.

Audio clip: Part 2 of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement for governor on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show:

audblog audio post

Audio clip: Part 1 of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement for governor on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show:

audblog audio post

I’m watching the Tonight Show, eagerly awaiting Arnold’s appearance. Leno’s opening remark:

“Boy, this California governor’s race is getting crazy. Just moments ago, Seabiscuit announced he’s running.”

UPDATE: Arnold was somewhat better on Leno than he was in his press conference, but he’s still being way too silly. (Though his “hasta la vista” joke did make me realize that I forgot that one major Arnold line in my headline list.) I seriously think he’s going to attract quite a few anti-recall voters who wouldn’t otherwise have voted, but who will oppose the recall just because it’s such a three-ring circus — and now one of the clowns is the front-runner to win if the recall succeeds.

I said I wouldn’t be giving daily blog updates on my job, and I stand by that, but I think I can make an exception in this case, because today I created a brand-new blog for my employer company’s website. (The core site is Jobs & the City, and the new blog is The Real Dish. Both are under construction.)

The Red Sox win, the Yankees lose, and InstaPundit links to my website, all in the space of about 20 minutes. I’d have to call that a successful evening.

Glenn Reynolds has linked to me!!! And he used my full name this time, instead of just calling me “Brendan”! :)

Traffic update shortly. I’m sure it’s going absolutely nuts right now.

(more…)

Below, I wrote that trying to fit Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last name in headlines is going to be a nightmare for newspaper staffers everywhere. But actually, it’s only a problem for serious newspapers. For tabloids and others who allow themselves the luxury of informal headlines, “Arnold” will do just fine… and it’s just the beginning of the possibilities. For those headline writers, this is an absolute dream. Are you ready for…

Total Recall
(quite possibly the headline in either the Post or the Daily News, or both, tomorrow)

Arnold Seeks to Terminate Davis

No Gray Area: Terminator Is Running

And then, during the campaign…

Arnold Accuses Davis of True Lies

Can He Jingle All the Way to Sacramento?

And if he wins:

Voters Pump Arnold Up

And if he loses:

Terminator Terminated

And if he loses, but hints he might run again in 2006:

Arnold: I’ll Be Back

Hello, InstaPundit readers! Welcome to BrendanLoy.com!

While you’re here, please check out my earlier post about the California recall (quoting someone else’s funny joke) and join the ensuing debate in comments, if you wish.

And hey, check out all my Noteworthy Posts and tell me whether you think they’re really all that noteworthy! :) Or, if you just want to laugh, please visit my Funny Stuff category.

Oh, and one last thing: take a peek at my photo gallery of Saddam Hussein being brutally attacked by a vicious kitten:

Yeah, I know that has nothing to do with this post, but what can I say? I’ve been trying to drive traffic to the Saddam-vs.-Psychokitty page for months, and I’m shameless. :)

UPDATE: I was right about the Daily News.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phones, stop the presses — MSNBC just sent out this breaking-news alert:

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for California governor

UPDATE: Yup, CNN confirms Arnold is running.

As to my statement in the post below about the “foregone conclusion” that Arnold wasn’t running, I again quote SNL’s Emily Litella: “Oh… nevermind.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: A man with 14 letters in his last name becoming the front-runner in the race for governor of America’s largest state? For newspaper headline writers everywhere, this is a nightmare!

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: How many candidates can say this: “As I’ve said all along, when I’m done with my Terminator promotion, I would deal with this issue of whether or not to run.”

FINAL UPDATE: Arnold’s press conference was decidedly unimpressive. Not very polished, not very eloquent, and the “I’ll be back” thing at the end was just too clownish. Several of his statements made you cringe, like he was a high-school kid running for class president and stumbling over his words. And I’m not saying this because he has an accent or anything like that — I’m saying it because he seemed unprepared and flustered and not very well-spoken.

Perhaps he’ll get better with time, but my initial reaction is that it was probably the right decision for him to run now, in this wild and wacky election (with its potential small-plurality victory), rather than taking a shot during a regular election with a full-length campaign and a two-way race requiring a majority for victory.

On the other hand, if Arnold looks like a clown to enough otherwise apathetic voters, it might increase the number of people bothering to go out and vote “no” on the recall. Perhaps the Terminator will save Davis from being terminated.

But whatever. The apolitical (and virtually amoral) part of me that thrives on drama and intrigue and just plain news, regardless of whether it’s good, bad, or ugly, is positively thrilled that he’s running. :) My political side says: Vote no on Question 1, vote Arianna Huffington on Question 2.

As an avid David Letterman fan, I don’t say this very often, but… watch Leno tonight. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to reveal on the Tonight Show whether he’ll run for governor of California.

Actually, the suspense is not as great as it might be, as it seems a foregone conclusion, based on the statements comnig out of his camp, that his answer will be “no.” But I’ll still be watching.

By the way, the latest issue of The Onion has an infographic on the recall, with answers to question, “What are the voters’ complaints [about Davis]?” Some are the jokes blatantly political — e.g., “Davis stood idly by while Republicans deregulated energy industry” and “Davis insisted on collecting ‘taxes’ to pay for government ‘programs and services’” — but the best one isn’t partisan at all, and it’s very much on topic:

Davis unfit to handle imminent rise of the machines.

Hehe.

Richard Goldstein has a well-written, well-reasoned article in the new Village Voice on the “gathering storm over gay rights.” He cites recent polls showing a substantial anti-gay-rights backlash in the wake of the Supreme Court’s sodomy ruling and the Canadian gay-marriage legalization — and in anticipation of a possible Massachusetts court ruling in favor of gay marriage. One gay-rights activist is quoted as saying, “If Massachusetts goes our way, we are going to witness a backlash the likes of which we’ve never, never, never seen.” Which, um, raises the question of whether that’s really “our way.”

Anyway, the article is quite good. I found this paragraph particularly insightful:

Cultural commentators don’t spend much time in the harsher precincts of Bush’s America. In their secure circles, gay rights is a testament to freedom, not a threat. The mainstream gay movement sees the world through this same rosy lens. Its middle-class focus keeps it from noticing the dissed and dispossessed, who tend to view gays as sinners with way too much power. This bitter perspective will seem familiar to students of Jewish history. Not that queers are headed for concentration camps, but unless the triumphal mood submits to a reality check, the current wave of resentment could become tidal. It’s crucial not to confuse a pop trend with a juggernaut.

That point about the “middle-class focus” is one that Goldstein lingers on, arguing that “the mainstream gay movement projects a refined white face, furthering the perception that it represents an elite,” thus alienating many poor people and minorities. I’m no expert on that aspect of the issue, but I think he may well have a point.

I also suspect he’s right when he says another problem is that gays don’t talk enough about the “real, human ways” in which discrimination and prejudice affect them. “The media prompt gay people to put on a happy face, and this upbeat image is compounded by the reluctance of gays to talk about their pain—it’s considered wussy these days.” Now there’s a concept that should challenge some stereotypes: gays are reluctant to do something because it’s seen as wussy!

Polling guru Ethel Klein, quoted in the article, sees some reason for hope:

“People may be supportive in the abstract, but once things get shaken up, those who are weak in their approval begin to waver,” Klein says. In 1992, she notes, there was growing acceptance of lesbians and gays serving in the military, but when Clinton made it look real, the polls showed a change. The same thing occurred in 1977, when Miami passed a gay rights ordinance, and Anita Bryant led a successful campaign to repeal it. But a new law was passed in 1998, and last year another repeal campaign failed. More than a decade after “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” a former general and possible presidential candidate, Wesley Clark, favors ending the ban. Once people absorb change, they relax—or so activists with a sense of history believe.

But Goldstein is definitely worried — about the nasty poll numbers, about the direction of the gay-rights movement, and about the prospect of the Federal Marriage Amendment passing — and frankly, I can’t blame him. Though if I’d written the article, I wouldn’t have made the ending sound quite so apocalyptic:

The fight over same-sex marriage may seem like a moment of truth for gay rights, but it’s bigger than even that. We are moving toward a decisive juncture in the culture wars, with queers—those consummate creatures of modernism—directly in the line of fire.

“This campaign is going to be about much more than freedom to marry,” says NGLTF’s Matt Foreman. “It’s going to be about the demonization of our people, and about legislating our second-class citizenship forever. When this battle is joined, the only way we will prevail is if everyone in the community unites. Whether people are for or against gay marriage, everyone has a piece of this fight. We have to understand the peril we’re facing—and the promise.”

What is this, Lord of the Rings? But still, he’s right: “There’s no such thing as a one-way road to liberation.” At least, not a straight one-way road, no pun intended. African-American freedom was beaten back after Reconstruction, female freedom was delayed after a surge during World War II, and gay freedom could yet be substantially postponed because it happened just a bit too quickly, which would be a tragedy of monumental preportions.

President Bush is right that “there is a current in history, and it runs toward freedom,” but the current is not smooth and it does not always flow switfly. It’s up to each generation to decide how fast it will flow, and I pray the current generation will not choose to build a dam.

Well, not really. But Mars approaches.