THINGS I COULDN'T FORGET
BECAUSE I NEVER KNEW THEM
BECAUSE I WASN'T PAYING ATTENTION

Ultimate political animal Dick Morris relates the startling number of domestic terrorist acts committed between 1974 and 1982 in New York and Chicago by Puerto Rican terrorists pardoned by Bill Clinton in 1999, during his legacy-building, Hillary-for-senator-boosting executive pardon binge [get a coffee and donut before settling in to read this list -- IT'S HUGE-- more here] in his last presidential days before leaving office (with armloads of office supplies and home furnishings). Apparently it was all his staff's fault (everything is always someone else's fault if you're a Clinton) -- seems they were busy doing more than just vandalizing the typewriters.

Money quotes:

Two days before the president announced the clemency deal, New York City Councilman Jose Rivera personally presented Hillary with a packet on clemency, including a letter asking her to 'speak to the president and ask him to consider granting executive clemency' to the prisoners.

...Even in those pre-9/11 days, pardoning terrorists who weren't even remorseful drew public outrage; candidate Hillary soon wound up condemning Bill's decision.

[h/t Jewish World Review]


AND ANOTHER THING I NEVER KNEW:
MOOKIE AL SADR IS GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL

Cincinnatus blogs from Iraq with as much unclassified dirt on the all-Iraqi Basra smackdown campaign as he could squeeze out of the intel guy -- what spurred it (Muqtada al Sadsack announced he was planning to study for his Imamship, signalling that he was backing off from his sworn goal to violently oppose whatever needed opposing, so as to keep the bombs going off indefinitely), and how it's going (not good, so far, but it ain't over yet).


I WANTED TO TAKE PART IN 'EARTH HOUR' TONIGHT BUT...

...there was so much glare coming off the lights in every room in my house and both front and back porches that I couldn't see the electric clock well enough to detect when the hour started, and besides I was too busy watching basketball on my electric TV set and drinking cold beer out of my electric refrigerator.


When things get really absurd, it's time to call on acerbic libertarian zingermeister P.J. O'Rourke to tell us just how bad it really is. Apropos of Earth Hour/Day/Shoes/In The Balance [h/t Ms. Shaidle], P.J. opines:

(1) The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it.


(2) The people who believe that, as a result of industrial development, life is about to become a hell, or may be one already, are guilty, at least, of sloppy pronouncements. On page 8 of Earth in the Balance, Al Gore claims that his study of the arms race gave him "a deeper appreciation for the most horrifying fact in all our lives: civilization is now capable of destroying itself."
In the first place, the most horrifying fact in many of our lives is that our ex-spouse has gotten ahold of our ATM card. And civilization has always been able to destroy itself. The Greeks of ancient Athens, who had a civilization remarkable for lack of technological progress during its period of greatest knowledge and power, managed to destroy them fine.

(3) Sen. Ted Kennedy: "And when the Reagan administration was selling arms to Iran, WHERE WAS GEORGE?"
Answer: Dry, sober, and at home with his wife.

I don't know what this last bit has to do with the environment, but I feel my personal environment improves exponentially when somebody stuffs it to Ted Kennedy. More O'Rourke jewels here.