Kerry supporter Mickey Kaus, sensible and fair as usual:

Ted Kennedy is going to be attacked for saying that the war in Iraq has “made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely.” But why shouldn’t he say it? That’s what the campaign is mainly about–namely, whose policies will minimize the risk of a “nuclear 9/11″. … Dick Cheney was similarly within his rights to argue that if Kerry’s elected “the danger is we’ll get hit again.” That’s his argument. …The point is that neither argument can be ruled out of bounds as excessive fear-mongering–after 9/11, fear of catastrophic terrorism in the U.S. clearly isn’t excessive at all. The arguments need to be judged on their merits.

Kaus thinks that, on the merits, Kennedy’s argument is the better one, and he makes a decent case for that proposition. Myself, I’m not comfortable backing Kennedy’s assertion about the war in Iraq specifically, but I do believe — or perhaps I should say I feel, since this sort of predictive argument is inevitably at least partially gut-based — that four more years of Bush would make the mushroom cloud more likely than four years of Kerry would.

At any rate, I think Kaus is right that a debate on the merits is necessary, and that Cheney’s comment therefore wasn’t out-of-bounds. On the other hand, if one feels that Cheney’s statement (or at least the now apocryphal Dowdified version thereof) was out-of-bounds, then so must Kennedy’s be, clearly.

However, I think it is beyond the pale to repeatedly and systematically imply that terrorists support Kerry (and/or vice versa).

Jen and Sören H., Becky’s sister and brother-in-law (and thus my future sister-in-law and… brother-in-law-in-law??), sent me a funny postcard from Hamburg, Germany, which I got in the mail today. I hope they don’t mind my reprinting it here… I just feel its hilarity should be shared with the world. :)

Hey Brendan!
Greetings from our crappy hotel beautiful Germany! We’ve been having a great time harassing the locals visiting museums and drinking loads of beer fine German white wines. I can never eat a sausage again. The fine sausage here leaves us hankering for vegetables more! I imagine this postcard will find you buried in work enjoying law school! Take care and best wishes.
Love,
Jen + Sören

Heh. :)

Despite expectations that he would, Alan Keyes did not comment last night on the revelation that his daughter is gay.

There was a 6.0 earthquake in Central California this afternoon. Map of quake and aftershocks here.

The look on Wonkette’s face in this picture with Zell Miller is priceless. Her headline is also pretty funny. And then there are the suggested Zell Miller pick-up lines:

• “I’m interested in some unilateral action.”
• “I challenge you to a duel. . . in my hotel room.”
• “I think there’s a traitor in my pants, want to help me hunt him down?”

Heh.

Prof. Gunn, discussing the fact that several people have sued referees for making bad calls: “That’s what happens when every third person in America goes to law school. But it’s okay with me. I live on your tuition. If I was a referee, I’d be worried.”

Image courtesy of the National Park Service.

This is turning into a busier-than-usual day for me with my guest-blogging. But I couldn’t pass this article up. After all, what better way is there to get to know Bush and Kerry than to let their wives talk about them?

I got to Towson this morning, and what should I find as the sole piece of mail in my mailbox? A little postcard-sized sheet of green paper imploring me to support (and vote for) the Green Party candidates in Maryland. On the front side, there are pictures of all the candidates with their names and what they are running for, and on the back, it gives a few reasons why to support the Green Party (”If you oppose the Iraq war and support peace . . . If you want candidates who represent people, not corporate interests . . . If you think we deserve a healthy environment, national health care, a living wage, and real campaign finance reform–VOTE GREEN”). Now, I have nothing against direct targeted political stuff (I am going for my PhD in political science, after all). And then it struck me: college professors are probably the only demographic that the Greens have a prayer of carrying this fall. Now, given how much Kerry has screwed up his campaign already, many Democrats may actually jump ship. But it seems to me that the Greens have actually had a good idea by targeting the liberal pinko-commie bastard professors.

And then I realized that the Greens aren’t even running a candidate in my district–arguably the second-most liberal district in the State of Maryland (the 8th . . . some would argue that the 4th, right next door, is the most liberal).

And I stopped caring.

Not that any of you particularly care, I just found it interesting that the Greens actually decided to target a group of people they actually had a chance of winning.

Here at BrendanLoy.com, we’re all about the lesbian action, provided of course that it’s family-friendly. And, well, what could possibly be more family-friendly than Alan Keyes’s daughter wearing an anti-Bush pin and kissing her rainbow-clad girlfriend in a picture that the young Ms. Keyes posted on her very own blog?

The picture’s worth a thousand words… but here are some words, anyway:

my parents and I were seriously not getting along and so we needed some time off from each other; the idea was that after a year of being a wonderful good helping-the-poor type person they would once again like me and therefore be willing to pay for my college. I’m not so sure that part of it will work; despite the fact that I’m all about working for global justice THEY don’t care about that, THEY only care that I am an evil dyke. And even if I am a charitable dyke I am still a dyke who KISSES GIRLS and especially with the gay marriage thing going on now that’s at the front of their minds.

You may recall that, not long ago, the esteemed U.S. Senate candidate from Maryland Illinois bashed Mary Cheney, the vice president’s daughter, for being a lesbian and, thus, a “selfish hedonist.” In consideration of which, you gotta feel for poor Maya Keyes. It must be rough having Alan as her dad.

Of course, it’s possible, I suppose, that this is all some sort of elaborate hoax — albeit a hoax far more convincing than the one that snookered Dan Rather. But I don’t think so. Here’s photo evidence the lesbian photographed above is indeed Alan Keyes’s daughter:

Sure looks like the same girl. And it seems like there would have to be an awful lot of conspirators involved, if this were a conspiracy.

I found out about this from Fark, which found out about it from Chillinois, which found out about it from Modern Vertebrate. Now it’s all over Daily Kos, Politics1 and Wonkette (who would “totally do her”), and it seems destined to continue percolating through the blogosphere and the wider web world in the coming hours and days.

Both of the above photos of Maya and her girlfriend reportedly came originally from Maya’s blog, as did the “dyke” commentary above, although they have since been yanked offline. The blog is still there, but somewhat more sanitized, I guess.

A Daily Kos contributor addresses the thorny issue of whether it’s kosher to “out” a 19-year-old who happens to be the daughter of an asshole:

Lost in all this talk of Maya Keyes and her privacy is a simple fact. Assuming that this story is legitimate, then Maya Keyes posted onto a publicly accessible part of the net a photo of herself kissing another girl. Assuming that this story is legimiate, Maya Keyes made multiple blog posts referencing her own homosexuality. The posts were in an obscure but still publically accessible corner of the net; the notion that anybody’s privacy is being violated here is off base.

Sorta like how, if my dad were running for political office on a platform of criminalizing mental illness, and someone said “But your son is A.D.D.,” I wouldn’t be able to claim that my privacy rights had been violated, since I chose to write about that issue on my publicly accessible website.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this develops. Hopefully without too much psychological trauma for Maya.

For the record, Maya, if you’re reading this, we here at BrendanLoy.com think it’s cool to be who you are, and to declare it loudly and proudly, even if it pisses your father off. (Okay, okay, especially because it pisses your father off. :)

UPDATE: From the official Keyes website, via bloggers Selfish Hedonist and ArchPundit:

I suppose it’s possible that she just really likes rainbows. But, well, applying Occam’s Razor… :)

UPDATE UPDATE: Here is, allegedly, Maya’s profile on Gay.com.

This almost makes me believe the story less, because it seems just too cute. But there’s no denying the rainbows in the photo above…

Anyway, the Gay.com profile says her politics are “Way left,” explains under the category “Tattoos” that she has “only a few now, but working on getting my entire back/chest done,” and answers the question “How ‘Out’ are you?” with a definitive “Totally.” Last but not least, the profile reveals that she’s a cunning linguist!

Languages spoken
German, Spanish
I also speak Latin and American Sign Language and can understand French, Dutch and Italian. I am also learning Hebrew and Arabic.

Sorry, but that was just too easy to pass up… :)

P.S. According to the Gay.com profile, she’s 21, not 19.

CORRECTION: According to commenter John, himself a blogger, the Gay.com profile described above is for the girlfriend, Bria, not for Maya. “Maya had a profile, too, but it’s since been taken down,” John says. I have no idea what John’s connection is, if any, to this story, nor whether he knows what he’s talking about. But if true, his statement would explain the age discrepancy.

Thought the iPod mini was already a status symbol? Simple Solutions Tech reckons that there are people out there willing to shell out a few bucks ($700 for the basic model) for a version adorned with Swarovski crystals.

From my CrimLaw casebook: “Would Trigger’s shooting of Desperado be a ‘proximate cause’ of Duck’s death?”

All I can say is: Quack, quack.

The Red Sox are going to the playoffs, baby! Cowboy up!

P.S. The World Series starts on Oct. 23. If they follow the normal schedule, that means Game 6, if necessary, will be held on my birthday, Oct. 30. So I hereby predict the Red Sox, having vanquished the Yankees in the ALCS, will win the World Series in six games (wrapping it up at Fenway), thus giving me the best birthday present ever.

Or maybe the Series will go seven games, and Boston will win its first championship since 1918 on Halloween! Now that would be spooky… Hell, maybe it’ll be against the Cubs… downright scary! :)

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN

Joe gets up and fills his coffee pot with water. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.

Joe takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance — now Joe gets it too.

He prepares breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He takes the subway, which saves him considerable money in parking and gas, because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation.

He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to join the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker’s compensation or an unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

Joe’s bank deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers.

Joe has a Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and a below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

Joe drives a car which is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards.

He visits his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.

His father lives on Social Security and a pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to.

Joe listens to a conservative radio talk show. Joe agrees: “We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.”

NOTE As much as I’d love to take credit for this one, I found it posted on a message board.

While we’re lauding the richly-deserved demise of terrorist scumbags, let us not overlook the untimely-because-belated passing of Hamas subhominid Izz al-Din al-Sheikh Khalil in Syria on Sunday.

Cause of death: seems old Izzy got into rather a Hotseat on the Driver’s side. Yes, they found him strewn all over the End of the Road to Damascus.

Israeli authorities have not officially confirmed their involvement in the hotwiring escapade. “*Wink*.”

Speaking on condition of strict anonymity, Joe Loy of Newington CT confirms the poetic appropriateness of the Mossad’s deployment of a Terror weapon of choice, the car bomb, against the targeted Guilty — as distinct from the Terrorists’ usage of such methodologies to randomly mass-murder the noncombatant innocent.

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(Note: At first I wasn’t going to plagiarize Andrew’s classic headline as above; but then I figured if he sues me for theft of intellectual property, the genetically-generated ADD-based superficiality of my Torts knowledge will be a useful Crutch for me to lean on. Yes, Ignorance of the Law is My Defense: It’s Not My Fault. Hi Andrew. :)
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In other news of Mideast violence, Franciscan & Greek Orthodox clergy engaged in Fisticuffs today at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Doctrinal differences over whether a door should be closed during a procession. Israeli police hauled the bellicose priests away in the Paddy wagon. :)