Quick Hitters

• Two Zero Wing references in one day: All My Info is Belong to Google and BlackBerry seeks "Great Justice" against any and all "berry" products. In related news, CATS is coming to the 'burg next spring. If someone tries to force me to attend, I might just set us up the bomb...

• Prof. David McGowan has interesting things to say about the ethics and practicalities of pre-commitment and judical confirmation hearings. Somewhat of a sticky wicket, a catch-22, a cannard, wrapped inside a riddle, inside an enigma: If a judge can't answer questions about specific cases, what do you talk about? Should the confirmation process really be ConLaw 101 for the Senators (many of whom have JD's)? If he can answer questions, it raises this problem:

  I would not want to litigate an issue in front of a judge who pledged under penalty of perjury and on national television to decide against me, even on just one issue. I suppose that is inevitable to some extent--if my claim is that price-fixing is free speech I am going to lose, and it won't matter much if a judge has said in a hearing that price-fixing is not free speech--but we can at least minimize the degree to which litigants know they are fighting the hearings as well as their opponents.

• The "Bridge to Nowhere" is dead. Sort of. Actually, not at all. Overall, I think the project is stupid, but is it fair for Alaska to bear the brunt of the nation's displeasure with pork-barrel politics? I mean aside from having the temerity to keep sending Uncle Ted, and Dirty Uncle CrackerCitizen Don (Young)* back to D.C. for term after term. (Which, BTW makes a great deal of sense for many Alaskans. Even political liberals tend to benefit greatly from the largesse Stevens extracts for the state. We have a new museum building, all kinds of native heritage projects (which keep my mom in Lexuses, so they can't be all bad, right?) and a spiffy new WI-FI HotspotAirport terminal). If we are serious about controlling spending, then goddamnit, let's pass a balanced-budget amendment (did I just say that outloud? Quick someone get me some hippie-juice before I fall over to the right...). Alternatively, if this is about Katrina relief, how 'bout every body hop on board? This NIMBY tokenism drives me crazy. (Links via Instapundit and Club For Growth)

• OK, Terrell Owens is an asshole (or is he? Read it). But he's also the best player in football, nobody works harder before during and after the game. If McNabb could run the 2 minute4 minute6 minute drill, he would have been Super Bowl MVP last year on a broken leg. Meanwhile, the Eagles can't win without him, they gave a running back who can't run the ball a massive contract extension, and this whole thing escalated because he got into a fight with a has been who had been cut in the pre-season. Plenty of discredit to go around here is all I'm saying.

• Finally, thanks to TMQ, link of the week, easily. Though I fear for my own safety do to his choice in targets.

* Perhaps apocryphal, but several years ago, during the NEA-Mapplethorpe spat, Rep. Young was addressing a high-school assembly, and a question was asked about what was so bad about the photos is question. After fumbling for just the right turn of phrase, Dandy Don opined something along the lines of: "It's just a bunch of pictures of people butt-fucking." Your United States Representative, ladies and germs.