Becky and I are at DPAC for the Tommy Makem show. Woohoo!

UPDATE: The show was good… not quite as good as last year’s, IMHO, but good. Toward the end, he sang “Will Ye Go Lassie Go” — which, if my childhood had a soundtrack, would be on the album for sure — so that was a thrill. Oh, and “Waltzing With Bears.” Teehee.

An outbreak of E. coli has spread to 20 states and sickened more than 90 people, federal health officials say. Visit CNN for the latest.

Gahrie is blogging about boobies.

Boobies… I love boobies!

Meanwhile, Ann Althouse is taking a closer look at breasts. More blogger boobs here (scroll down; SFW, pretty much). (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

UPDATE: Welcome, InstaPundit readers! Hmm… the title of this post was a joke… but maybe I will start doing a Friday “carnival of the boobies.” Why not? Check back next Friday to find out! Heh.

Anyway, since people who clicked Glenn’s link are presumably looking for, uh, boobie-related and/or hot-babe-related material, here are a few potentially relevant items, from the archives:

(more…)

This is really cool.

P.S. So is this.

New York becomes the 11th state with confirmed cases of illness resulting from E. coli bacteria in bagged spinach. Visit CNN for the latest.

Muslims are not happy with the Pope, not happy at all.

P.S. This latest “how dare you insult Islam” kerfuffle has me thinking. Why is not OK to criticize Islam? Personally, I don’t know enough about Islam to either defend it or criticize it. But it seems to be a widely accepted tenet of the secular church of political correctness that any criticism of Islam is a form of bigotry — “Islamophobia” — and I don’t understand why. There’s a big difference between criticizing a religion and stereotyping or generalizing about its adherents. For instance, I can criticize Scientology as being a load of crap while still recognizing that there are doubtless some Scientologists out there who aren’t total freaks. I can criticize Mormonism for various aspects of its doctrines while still acknowledging that lots of Mormons are wonderful people. I can criticize Catholicism for excluding women from the priesthood, opposing various forms of scientific progress, and promoting an unrealistic set of “values” (priestly celibacy, no birth control under any circumstances, etc.) that lead to all sorts of real-world problems, without insinuating that Catholics as a whole are somehow deficient as human beings. I can even make far harsher criticisms, and still be within the realm of acceptable discourse. Some people believe that religion generally is a load of bunk, that it’s the opiate of the masses, that it leads to nothing but delusion, war and death. These people are not called bigots, nor should they be, unless and until they start unfairly generalizing about people, as opposed to critiquing belief systems. Why, then, is it off-limits to criticize Islam? The thesis that Islam is a “religion of peace” seems to be an article of faith, unquestioned and unquestionable, among large segments of our P.C.-obsessed society. Why? I’m not arguing that Islam is not a religion of peace — again, I don’t know enough about the subject to have an educated opinion about the religion’s doctrines, its history, etc. — but why should scholars and commentators who study the subject and draw a contrary conclusion be shunned as bigoted Islamophobes? Are we simply afraid of the response from the Arab Street? Is there some other reason why we hold Islam to a different standard, when it comes to criticism and commentary, than we do other religions? Or am I simply misperceiving the situation, and really there’s no double-standard at all? I’m genuinely curious as to what people think.

Casey has fishies!

He also has another interesting post about Iran. Excerpt:

This is an era of burgeoning peril. Republicans compare it to 1938, viewing Ahmadinejad as Hitler and clamoring that he must not be appeased. I think it is more like 1923, when a young Hitler attempted to overthrow the Bavarian government. Al-Qaeda and the global jihadist movement are in their very earliest phases, much like the fascists were in the early 1920’s. They are still trying to consolidate control over their first few footholds in places like Palestine, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Their inspiration comes from the Quran, but also from the poverty of wealth and dignity that they all endure. Just as in the 1920’s, present conditions are ripe to support the evolution of a radical minority into a ruling totalitarian order. Not least among these conditions is the perceived humiliation that Muslims endure daily at the hands of our own forces and those of our Israeli ally.

Republicans seem to think that this is the time for action, and that inaction would be far more costly. I agree with this line of reasoning. We cannot sit back and allow the Middle East to spin out of control. To qualify this reasoning, I would submit only the following: should one fight fuel with fire?

Read the whole thing.

Speaking of Iran, Fark had a hilarious Photoshop contest yesterday, featuring lots of awesome photoshopped pictures of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. My favorite:

Heh.

Meanwhile, resident Trekkies will appreciate this one, not so much for the image as for the caption…

…”DARMOK AHMADINEJAD AT TENAGRA!!!!”

Much more here.

The Newington High School football team starts its regular season this afternoon with a game at Hartford Public. The New Britain Herald’s Ken Lipshez looks ahead to the season, saying the Indians want respect.

A deadly E. coli outbreak linked to bagged spinach has spread to a ninth state, with Ohio officials reporting seven cases, The Associated Press reports. Visit CNN for the latest.

The greater South Bend/Granger metro area will be buzzing, nay rocking, with good music tonight. Brooke has the scoop on the Surreal McCoys, a band of NDLS grads who will be performing in Granger at 10pm or thereabouts. Visit her site for all the details.

I wish I could see the McCoys, but taking priority tonight for me is the Bard of Armagh, Tommy Makem, who is performing at DPAC at 8:30. I love Makem, and this time Becky and I will both be there. You can be too — tickets are still available!

The Eragon trailer is FINALLY out, it’s available for download online, and it looks freakin’ awesome!

Medium-resolution version (21.3 MB) here; hi-res version (65.3 MB) here. (Via Moviefone.)

As you can see at right, I’ve made some much-needed changes to the blogroll sidebar, adding (finally!) a “friends & family” section — which replaces the old “Brendansphere” frame — and greatly expanding the sports blogroll, with separate sections for USC and Notre Dame sports bloggers. I also added a section called “other blog regulars” for people I don’t know in real life, and who don’t fit into any of the other categories, but who frequent my blog and have blogs of their own. I’m sure I missed some people, in that section and elsewhere, so please, leave suggestions in comments for sites I should add!

By the way… a few blogs that used to be in the Brendansphere were left off the “friends & family” list, simply because they haven’t been updated in a long time, or are updated very infrequently. Nothing personal — I’m just trying to keep the blogroll relatively fresh.