Tomorrow night, Mars will make its closest approach to Earth until 2016. At 55 million miles away, it won’t be as nearby as it was during the much-hyped close encounters in 2003 (35 million) and 2005 (43 million), but it’s well worth a look regardless. Indeed, the Red Planet has been a brilliant fixture in the night sky for several weeks now. I see it all the time while walking Robbie.

Mars will be in the eastern sky, not far from Orion, in the hours after sunset tomorrow.

P.S. For those who prefer astrology to astronomy:

The entire Mars perigee period is always one of elevated tension and conflict, the kind of atmosphere that cultivates inflamed passions, hot tempers and rash action: feelings that we have suppressed or have not paid attention to will in some way be held up to the truth and any illusions we have ever harboured will be shattered.

At a more impersonal level a Mars perigee period is marked by fires, explosions, accidents, storms and various ‘acts of God’. To be forewarned is forearmed: have candles and matches and a good supply of water and a few tins of food at hand. Be aware.

Well then. Good to know.

In the Dec. 17 NY Times [free registration required] Adam Nagourney shares the Shocking revelation that in the presidential nominations contests, Super Duper Tuesday just might Not constitute The End of All Things. [Why yes, I’ve been rewatching The Trilogy on TV lately; how’dja Guess? :] Emphases Added:

As campaigns try to keep up with this fast-paced, multi-layered campaign, there is growing sense among Republicans that for their contest at least — and perhaps for Democrats — Feb. 5 may not be the end of the line…

…The conventional wisdom is that a candidate must do well enough in the contests that take place in January — starting with Iowa and New Hampshire — to roll into Feb. 5 with enough force to sweep the table. Even if the candidate doesn’t actually accumulate enough delegates to claim the nomination, the pressure from party leaders to coalesce around a nominee, combined with the obstacles facing other candidates who might want to fight on, would carry the day.

Except that it is now entirely possible that no Republican will be moving very quickly going into Feb. 5. In fact, it is entirely plausible that Mike Huckabee of Arkansas will win the caucuses [in Iowa]; that John McCain of Arizona will win New Hampshire; that Mitt Romney of Massachusetts will win Michigan, Fred Thompson of Tennessee will win South Carolina and Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York will win Florida. In those circumstances, with no obvious front-runner, and with many of the candidates having adequate resources and varying bases of support, they could just divide the prize on Feb. 5 and move on to the next primary.

“Which means the race might not be over until the convention,” said Peter Robinson, a fellow with the Hoover Institution and a speechwriter in the Reagan White House. “I know there comes a time every year when journalists say this is going to be decided at the convention. I won’t say it’s probable, but it is possible: This race just won’t close.”

Still, there are considerable obstacles to a protracted nominating battle…

…Which Nagourney goes on to elucidate. Read the whole free-registration-required thing.

(Full Disclosure: my own Impish fantasy is TWO contested Conventions, a Dem 3-way and Repub 4-way, in which the seating of the Penalized Delegations ~ those from the Impermissibly Early primary-&-caucus states, previously presumed to be No Problemo because the respective Nominees Presumptive will grant them Full Dispensations for the sake of Party Harmony ~ become, in the unanticipatedly-consequential Absence of said Nominees Presumptive, the very Condundrum whose solution is Crucial to the the concoction of a Majority for Somebody. / IOW ohhh, wouldn’t it be Fierce? :)

Some critics of Tyrone Willingham believed it was his unwillingness to make staff changes that led to his ouster at Notre Dame 3 years ago. Whether that was true or not, it can’t be said this time, as he has fired Defensive Coordinator Kent Baer along with Special Teams coach Bob Simmons. Defensive struggles were one of the Huskies’ lowlights this season, and many were pushing for Baer’s firing.

There finally appears to be some progress in the negotiations between USC and the L.A. Coliseum Commission… but this part concerns me:

The school…will allow the commission to pay for a stadium overhaul — one that would cost in the neighborhood of $50 million — by allowing the use of USC’s logos in a stadium naming-rights deal.

“In the interest of getting a deal done we have … agreed to allow the commission to do a naming-rights deal and cooperate with the commission to get a single, prime naming-rights sponsor to name the Coliseum and put together a package,” Dickey said. “As long as the money that was raised from that will go toward improving the Coliseum, based on the list of improvements that we feel are necessary and the specific deadlines by which they must be done.”

Does this mean the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is going to become the Office Depot Coliseum of Los Angeles or some such blasphemy? Good lord.

(Suggested corporate sponsor via Boi From Troy, who blogged about this possibility way back in September.)

Since my shameless plugs for Julie worked, I figured I might as well try another sort of shameless plug… one that could make me money!

I recently got an e-mail from a fellow at Asgard Press inviting me to check out their selection of Vintage College Football calendars. They’re pretty nifty, if you’re into old-timey-lookin’ football type stuff. Here, for instance, is what the cover of their Notre Dame calendar looks like:

They’ve got a ton of other schools, too, including Tennessee. Alas, no USC — that’s in the works for next year.

Anyway, they make great stocking-stuffers… if you have an enormous stocking. :) Okay, okay, they make great gifts, anyway, for the old-school football fan in your life. Go over and see for yourself! And if you decide to buy one, be sure to use that link to get to it: you’ll get a 10% discount, and I’ll get a 15% cut. So everybody wins! :)

With Rich Rodriguez leaving West Virginia to become, at long last, the new coach at Michigan, the question now becomes who will be West Virginia’s new coach, and it appears that a possible candidate is… that’s right, kids…

Nick Saban.

Sources close to University President Mike Garrison have informed WBGV that Nick Saban’s agent has contacted WVU regarding our vacant head-coaching position.

These sources tell us that Saban is extremely unhappy in Tuscaloosa and has failed to recapture the situation he had in Baton Rouge with LSU. The purpose of the agent’s call was to express initial interest in the position and to have WVU athletics put together a compensation package enough to lure Saban from Alabama.

LOL!! Just when you thought Bobby Petrino might take over the title of “most blatantly disloyal sleazeball coach east of the Mississippi Dennis Erickson,” King Saban reasserts his claim to the throne…

If you have any sort of pre-emptive strategies for preventing yourself from coming down with a cold/flu/fever, and your wife is getting into the latter stages of pregnancy, employ those strategies, immediately if not sooner.

There is nothing more miserable, I have learned, than being sick while your wife is super-pregnant. I’ve had a severe sore throat and a wildly fluctuating fever (as high as 101.3°, as low as 97.4°) for the last three days, and it totally sucks. I mean, being sick always sucks, but it especially sucks right now, and it sucks for both of us. Why? Because 1) I can’t dote on Becky as much I normally would when she’s 38 weeks pregnant, and 2) Becky can’t dote on me as much as she normally would when I’m all sick. Oh yeah, and 3) I have the added stress of worrying that 3a) I’ll still be sick when Becky goes into labor, which technically could happen at any moment, and/or 3b) Becky will catch what I have, won’t be able to take the medicines I can take, will be totally miserable, and it’ll be all my fault.

As it is, we’re both basically sitting around the house in a somewhat zombie-like state, each trying to do what we can for the other, then periodically stopping to wallow in our respective islands of discomfort: my stuffy nose, hacking cough, eyes that feel like they’re on fire, chills trading off with hot flashes, and oh yeah, the horrible pain whenever I swallow. Becky, meanwhile, gets to deal with getting kicked in the ribs, feeling stretched, smooshed and crowded all over, and being exhausted… all… the… time. (And so forth.)

Actually, Becky has been a saint through all this. Despite my efforts, I daresay she’s been doting on me more than I have on her, and with very little complaint. Personally, I see this as further evidence in support of my longstanding theory that Becky is the most awesome wife in the world. Here we are, at this unique moment in our lives when I ought to be waiting on her hand and foot, and instead, she’s trying to nurse her sick hubby back to health. (For example: homemade chicken-noodle soup tonight!) Becky rocks.

Oh, and one other piece of advice, albeit perhaps of the somewhat more obvious, damn-Brendan-you’re-a-dumbass variety. If you wake up with a fever of 100.8°, and you still have ambitions of going to work, and you decide to take a shower in pursuit of those ambitions… don’t take a hot shower. I had chills when I got in, so it felt good… for about 30 seconds. Then I started to feel very nauseous, which in retrospect I realized was because (duh) my body temperature was starting to spike. I got out after about ten minutes, and after maybe five minutes of evaporative cooling, my temp was at 101.3°. Who knows how hot it was when I first got out. In conclusion, I’m a dumbass.

P.S. For any worry-wort fathers and ex-medical-professionals-in-law who may be reading this, rest assured: I went to the doctor, got a strep test, and it was negative. I was told it’s just a run-of-the-mill upper-respiratory virus, and that I just need to take it easy, drink lots of fluids, and get plenty of rest. So that’s what I’m doing.

Joementum for John?

The netroots’ reaction to Joe Lieberman’s endorsement of John McCain is relatively muted, notwithstanding Andrew Sullivan’s prediction that it would make their heads asplode. The king of the netroots, Kos himself, writes that it’s “kind of silly” to be “outraged” about this, and in fact professes to be “quite pleased with this turn of events.” He says it reveals Lieberman’s true colors at last (those of a “disloyal backstabbing ass”), and renders the hated Nutmegger increasingly irrelevant.

One thing about the McCain-Lieberman ticket alliance does seem to be sticking in the lefties’ craw, though, and that’s the fact that Senator Joe supposedly “promised the voters of his state that he would fight to elect a Democratic Senate and president.” This claim deserves some additional scrutiny.

(more…)

If you’re a Drudge Report reader, you know that Matt’s top “story” right now is a picture of a wrinkly and bedraggled-looking Hillary Clinton, above the headline “THE TOLL OF A CAMPAIGN.”

What you may not know — I only recently learned it — is that the Drudge Report has become, at least in part, a Mitt Romney vehicle, courtesy of the Stormin’ Mormon’s senior communications strategist, Matt Rhoades, who is described as having a “direct line” to Drudge. I don’t know whether Romney and Rhoades have anything to do with today’s Hillary-bash, but it’s widely believed that Drudge’s recent anti-Huckabee headlines have been fed to him directly from the Romney camp.

But anyway, more interesting than the Romney angle, IMHO, is the sexism angle, which Ann Althouse tackles:

My first reaction to that picture is simple disbelief. How can she suddenly look that much older? I know Presidents age horribly in their few years in office, but she’s not President yet, and this seems to have happened overnight. Did some treatment wear off?

But here’s my second reaction, on reflection: We make high demands on women. A picture like this of a male candidate would barely register. Fred Thompson always looks this bad, and people seem to think he’s handsome. We need to get used to older women and get over the feeling that when women look old they are properly marginalized as “old ladies.” If women are to exercise great power, they will come into that power in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. We must — if we care about the advancement of women — accommodate our vision and see a face like this as mature, experienced, serious — the way we naturally and normally see men’s faces.

I think Althouse is right. As such, I disagree with Glenn Reynolds and particularly with his reader, Thomas S. Baker, who writes: “Remember all the media attention regarding John Kerry and his alleged botox injections?” I think that actually proves the point, rather than disproving it. Kerry didn’t get bad press for being wrinkly, ugly and old-looking; he got bad press for trying to improve his appearance, so that he would look smoother, more attractive and younger! His supposed use of Botox was seen as unmanly, and that’s why it was a big deal. (To an extent, the same is true of John Edwards’s $400 haircut, and that video.)

If Kerry had never used Botox, his wrinkliness never would have been a campaign issue, just as Fred Thompson’s isn’t. Glenn says “if Fred went from apparently smooth-skinned to wrinkly overnight, people would notice.” But let’s get real. The camera can make the same person look wonderful one minute and horrible the next, depending on camera angles, lighting conditions and so forth… not to mention how much makeup the candidate is wearing (and yes, the male candidates wear makeup, too). Point is, I’m sure there are plenty of unusually unflattering photos of male candidates sitting on various wire services’ cutting-room floors, never published, and certainly never the top “story” on Drudge. So this isn’t just a double-standard based on gender; it’s almost an opposite standard. Women are supposed to look young(-ish) and fashionable (but not too fashionable) and unwrinkled at all times. Men are supposed to project an aura of not caring about their appearance at all — beyond looking “presidential,” of course, whatever the heck that means (and wrinkles probably help in that department).

Alas, next week’s Patriots-Dolphins game in Foxboro won’t be a showdown between a 14-0 team gunning for the NFL’s first-ever 16-0 season and an 0-14 team trying to avoid its first-ever 0-16 season. The Patriots held up their end, winning 20-10 over the Jets, but the Dolphins didn’t, beating the Ravens to improve to 1-13.

So says the Weekly Standard. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

McCain-Lieberman ‘08!

(Previous McCain-Lieberman posts here, here, here and here.)

UPDATE: This shouldn’t be seen as a huge surprise. Lieberman has stated repeatedly that he would back whoever he felt to be the best candidate in 2008, regardless of party.

More from CNN:

An aide to Lieberman tells CNN he decided to endorse McCain because he considers him “the most capable to be commander in chief on day one of his administration, and the most capable of uniting the country so that we can prevail against Islamic extremism.”

The Lieberman aide insists the senator does not see this as a “commentary on or an endorsement of the Republican party, only the person.”

Lieberman had not planned to endorse anyone until after the primary season, but McCain asked Lieberman for his endorsement a few days after the two men returned from a Thanksgiving trip to Iraq together, and Lieberman decided to do it, according to the same Lieberman aide.

Lieberman will continue to caucus with the Democrats.

Quoth Harry Reid: “I have the greatest respect for Joe, but I simply have to disagree with his decision to endorse Senator McCain.”

According to HuffPost, McCain and Lieberman “will appear together on NBC’s ‘Today’ show tomorrow, then at an 8 a.m. town hall in Hillsborough, N.H. They will talk with reporters after the town hall meeting.”

Marc Ambinder:

The endorsement is further evidence of Lieberman’s slow drift to the right in American politics and is bound to generate intense anger among Democrats who support him. But Lieberman and McCain have often walked in lockstep together on the prosecution of the war, have traveled to Iraq together, and have worked together on domestic issues like climate change.

The move will heighten speculation that McCain might ask Lieberman to join his ticket.

P.S. Daily Kos diarist JeremiahFP:

Both [McCain and Lieberman] are good men and members of the Beltway club of Very. Smart. People. Who. Are. Always. Wrong. About. Everything (Iraq, Iran, Whether Fred Thompson is sexy. Everything). Those very smart people will faun all over this. David Brodeur’s head may explode with pride.

As for the rest of us, well, the battle lines are drawn once again. Joe Lieberman is not a Democrat. He may be a good person, but, on matters of life and death and war and peace, Joe Lieberman is fundamentally wrong. Ou[r] party should stand up to him strongly.

Andrew Sullivan has more.

UPDATE 2: According to Fox News, a Lieberman aide said this does not mean we’ll be seeing a McCain-Lieberman ticket:

[T]he aide said… that McCain did not ask Lieberman to join his ticket in the vice presidential slot.

Lieberman “just wants to serve as a U.S. senator, nothing more,” the aide said.

Of course, that is what they’d say now, regardless of what might actually happen later. Personally, I can’t see Lieberman turning McCain down if McCain begs him to join the ticket for the sake of national unity and national security. The question is, will McCain ask?

In other McCain-related news, I had somehow missed this before, but the conservative New Hampshire Union Leader endorsed McCain earlier this month. That’s far more significant, it seems to me, than the endorsements from the liberal Boston Globe and Des Moines Register, which are unlikely to influence many Republican voters. Anyway, here’s what the Leader had to say, in part:

On Jan. 8, New Hampshire Republicans will make one of the most important choices for their party and nation in the history of our presidential primary. Their choice ought to be John McCain.

We don’t agree with him on every issue. We disagree with him strongly on campaign finance reform. What is most compelling about McCain, however, is that his record, his character, and his courage show him to be the most trustworthy, competent, and conservative of all those seeking the nomination. Simply put, McCain can be trusted to make informed decisions based on the best interests of his country, come hell or high water.

Competence, courage, and conviction are enormously important for our next President to possess. No one has a better understanding of U.S. interests and dangers right now than does McCain. He was right on the mistakes made by the Bush administration in prosecuting the Islamic terrorist war in Iraq and he is being proved right on the way forward both there and worldwide.

McCain is pro-life. Always has been. He fights against special-interest and pork-barrel spending, and high spending in general, which ticks off liberals and many in the GOP who have wallowed at the public trough. Yet he also has the proven ability, unique among the contenders, to work across the political divide that has led our government into petty bickering when important problems need to be solved.

If you can’t tell, I’m strongly leaning toward McCain as my preferred choice for the GOP nomination. Whether that means I’ll vote for him in November is a separate question, but I think he’s the best Republican in the field. Lieberman’s endorsement sort of sealed it.

I looked into his soul, and I saw fascism:

A Russian opposition activist has been sent to a psychiatric hospital by authorities a day before a planned demonstration. …

His case is the latest example of journalists or opposition activists being involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals in Russia.

During the Soviet era, dissidents were frequently committed for protesting against Soviet policies.

Well, in light of Putin’s ever-growing dictatorial tendencies, a case can be made that you’ve got to be crazy to oppose him.

Is the Edwards campaign poised for a comeback? (Hat tip: Kaus, via Insty.)

I sure hope not. I think I can live with either Clinton or Obama as the nominee (depending on who the latter picks as his running mate… hint: Biden!), but I don’t think I can live with Edwards, who has morphed from an optimistic, inspirational everyman* in 2004 (sort of a white Obama) into an angry populist anti-business crusader. If Edwards wins the nomination, it’s quite likely I’ll wind up voting Republican… unless, of course, his opponent is Huckabee. What a nightmare of populist demagoguery that race would be. And it doesn’t get any better when you consider the possible third- and fourth-party candidates, Nanny Bloomberg and Nativist/Protectionist Dobbs. Good lord, that’s gotta be the worst four-way presidential race imaginable. Who the hell would I vote for? Those Libertarians would start to look better and better…

*Yes, I realize a multi-million dollar trial lawyer is not actually an “everyman.” But that’s the image he projected, and he did it well.

UPDATE: Welcome, InstaPundit readers! Glenn says: “[H]onestly, I think I’d vote for Edwards over Huckabee, though I’d feel dirty the next morning. And I’d be even more likely to vote for Hillary or Obama [over Huck].”

The Tennessee Titans have given UCLA permission to interview offensive coordinator Norm Chow for the Bruins’ head coaching position, and the interview reportedly took place Saturday night in Kansas City.

The Des Moines Register has endorsed McCain and Clinton, and the Boston Globe has endorsed McCain and Obama. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

I’d love to see McCain pull an upset in one or both states. But I wonder whether these endorsements will actually help him, given conservative attitudes toward the MSM. Reading the editorials, it’s fairly clear they’re written from a liberal worldview. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that, but I doubt it will sway too many Republican primary and caucus voters.

Of course, independents can vote in New Hampshire, and were largely responsible for McCain’s upset win there in 2000. But the newfound closeness of the Clinton-Obama race makes it much harder for him this year, because more independents will presumably do what Sally Eneguess is doing and vote in the Democratic primary.

In other news, Volokh Conspiracy’s Ilya Somin has some harsh words for Mike Huckabee: “One big government conservative administration in the 21st century is more than enough.” Ouch. That hurts. Though it’s not as bad as having your foreign policy called “Carteresque” — by conservatives. (Hat tip, again: InstaPundit.)

UPDATE: Finally, an explanation for Huckabee’s meteoric rise: Chuck Norris!

UPDATE 2: Richelieu at the Weekly Standard writes:

McCain is rising in New Hampshire polls, and savvy on the ground observers there tell me McCain’s campaign is catching fire. I still think McCain should have rolled the dice and committed TV money to Iowa to beat Rudy and Fred there and nab a third place finish, which would rocket him into New Hampshire as the big surprise Iowa winner. But if the Mitt vs. Huck tussle damages both, McCain could still potentially upset the field in New Hampshire and then be off to the races. McCain’s great advantage is that, unlike Huckabee and Romney, his numbers are deep and rock solid. You either like him or you don’t. So he enters the chaos of the post-Iowa period with a tough knot of real support in New Hampshire, which is not a bad secondary hand to play in a chaotic situation.