[Not by a long shot]
I've got the blog bug today. Not sure why. Guess I'm just fidgety.

At Spin Street Music Sunday, I bought Pinback's "Blue Screen Life" and, I swear, this band makes the most mellow, grooving music of any band around. I listen to it on a loop at work and I actually think it helps me do better work.

Today we had a little office party for a copy editor who has not called in sick a single time in her 40 years of work here. She's built up almost 400 sick days, meaning she could take a whole year off if she wanted to. Stop for a minute and think about working anywhere for 40 years and never calling in sick. And they give awards in high school to the kids who make it to school every day for nine months.

As we formed a line to get cake and ice cream, I couldn't help but wonder who would end up being the Milton. I think the cake was big enough for everyone, though, or else this place might have gotten torched in a few days.

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So it's John Roberts, then. Here's a first: I don't care. Well, I don't care enough to rant about it endlessly. Roberts doesn't seem any crazier than Scalia or Thomas. (This will probably prove to be oh so dreadfully wrong, I'm fully aware.) I'm just worried about the nutjob Bush will pick to replace Rehnquist when his bell tolls. There's no way that this wasn't somewhat of a concession on Bush's part. Let my double negative be all the proof you need. I don't have insider sources, but I'd be willing to bet that this nomination not only took the heat off of Rove for a couple of days, but it also pacified much of the center-left. It's BushCo Strategery (yes, you read that right) at its best. We won't get the same "courtesy" next time around, you know. Just a hunch.

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You know, we went in to Iraq to whoop an ass and collect WMDs. When that failed, we decided we may as well set up a secular democracy to get the region on the same page as the West so they'll stop blowing us up. A fair enough plan, if you're into nation building. Well, the secular part of that democracy lasted as long as the U.S.-backed interim Constitution. Because now that the Iraqis are threading together their democracy (arguably) on their own, the national law's deference to Islamic law has returned. And you know when Islamic law rules, women tend to lose the most. Case in point: This story about the new Constitution guaranteeing equal rights for women as long as those rights do not violate Koranic law. And we all know how egalitarian Koranic law is. Would you like your abaya in black or almost black?

Now, only click that link if you're confident that the nasty liberal media web site won't give you a virus.