Some sponsors could keep Tiger Woods as pitchman, if he returns from his indefinite break to play great golf.
On Capitol Hill these days, the Republican Party seems to be solidly (if stolidly) united.
Responses to Democratic or Obama administration proposals range from “No,” to “no way,” “uh-uh,” and “you’ve got to be kidding us.” Unless it’s about sending thousands more American troops to war.
But outside the Washington beltway, things are not so copacetic for the GOP – particularly among the conservative base.
A Rasmussen Poll this past week shows Republicans leading Democrats in a generic congressional ballot (43-39 percent). But throw in a “Tea Party” candidate, and things take a definite turn away from the party of Lincoln. In a generic three-way congressional race, the results are: 36 percent for the Democrat, 23 percent for the Tea Partier, and just 18 percent for the Republican (with 22 percent undecided).
Writing at Politico.com, Andy Barr notes that Tea Party groups are springing up like mushrooms around the country.
Even though there’s no national organization and some groups are competing for support, Barr writes, “The tea party brand is strong enough that a number of conservative candidates, including Republican California Senate hopeful Chuck DeVore, have tried to adopt the movement’s message.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/1212/The-Republican-Party-fights-with-itself
Meticulous ancient notetakers have given archaeologists a glimpse of what life was like 3,000 years ago in the Assyrian Empire, which controlled much of the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform, an ancient script once common in the Middle East, were unearthed in summer 2009 in an ancient palace in present-day southeastern Turkey.
Palace scribes jotted down seemingly mundane state affairs on the tablets during the Late Iron Age—which lasted from roughly the end of the ninth century B.C. until the mid-seventh century B.C.
But these everyday details, now in the early stages of decoding, may open up some of the inner workings of the Assyrian government—and the people who toiled in the empire, experts say.
"You're really getting at the nitty gritty of the management of the empire through these kind of records," said Melinda Zeder, director of the archaeobiology program at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the research.
"And that does what history really should do—creates a connection between our lives and the lives of people [many] years ago," added Zeder, a member of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091209-ancient-tablets-decoded.html
Late Sunday night is the peak of the year's most prolific annual cosmic fireworks show—the Geminid meteor shower (Geminids picture).
The meteor shower has been growing in intensity in recent decades and should be an even better holiday treat than usual this year, since it's falling in a nearly moonless week.
Coming fast on the heels of its more famous cousin the Leonid meteor shower—which peaked less than a month ago—the Geminid show should feature as many as 140 shooting stars per hour between Sunday evening and Monday morning.
The Geminids are slow meteors that create beautiful long arcs across the sky—many lasting a second or two.
Favoring observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the Geminids are expected to be most frequent within two hours of 1:10 a.m. ET in the wee hours of Monday.
The shower's radiant—the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to originate—is the constellation Gemini, which rises above the eastern horizon after 9 p.m. local time.
Astronomers recommend observers head outside between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time.
"We have demonized the one gas that keeps us alive on this planet." Ian Pilmer, Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide.
Stacy and I were conversing on Twitter yesterday about Tiger Woods’ woes, and both of us believe that this wouldn’t be such a big deal if it were not for the fact that he’s a Cablinasian. Americans have little understanding or tolerance for the Cablinasians in their midst, instead preferring to attempt to impose their values upon this minority. Who is to say that in Cablinasian society it is considered bad form to prefer buxom blondes, or to enjoy threesomes behind one’s wife’s back, fueled by booze, Ambien and Cialis? One may argue that the latter are unlikely to have been historical components of Cablinasian sex, but then there is no reliable document that I am aware of demonstrating that pre-Columbian Native Americans had keno or roulette parlors.
If indeed Tiger Woods was attacked by his wife, caught up in her own cultural interpretation of wedlock, with a golf club, then that represents the first time the MSM has reported on a hate crime against a Cablinasian. As deplorable as Scandi-on-Cablinasian violence may be, however, it is fortunate that Tiger Woods is a high-profile enough Cablinasian that this is getting a good deal of press coverage, and raising world-wide consciousness regarding this problem.
Inspired by a Luigi Chinetti-owned 330 LM used in an obscure Fellini film, the Ferrari P540 Superfast Aperta is a 599 GTB Fiorano-based one-off Pinfinarina designed for the son of the creator of cable TV.
Tiger Woods to take hiatus from golf, adultery
Pabst Blue Ribbon rides the recession and goofy hipsters to comeback success
U.S. freezes Iran's $2 billion Citibank account. Proceeds go to the families of the 299 servicemen killed in the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut
CNN commits actual journalism, confronts Al Gore with Climategate evidence. Sweating, lying, hilarity ensue (with video)
The finale of the Miss World pageant will be broadcast tomorrow night, live from Johannesburg, South Africa. An international television audience of 2 billion--one third of the people on earth--is expected.
The strong betting favorite remains Puerto Rico's Jennifer Colon, at odds varying from 2:1 to 1:1.
Miss Barbados is generating a lot of publicity and is among the betting favorites.
So far, we haven't mentioned Miss USA, Lisa-Marie Kohrs. If only for patriotic reasons, we should. She is a good candidate and currently is ranked 15th in the betting odds:
There are lots more strong contestants; I'll just mention one more, Miss Northern Ireland:
